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Atletico Madrid owner Miguel Angel Gil Marin has tried to salvage relations with Athletic Club, following comments made by his own CEO, Enrique Cerezo. There was frustration over the fact that the RFEF did not play their Copa del Rey semi-final first leg on Thursday rather than Wednesday, to give them an extra day of rest. They felt it unfair that Los Leones played Friday, while Los Rojiblancos were in action on Sunday.
“The truth is that I thought the game would be postponed one day because, apart from the fact that it was good for us to have one more day of rest for the players, there was something fundamental: that it was also good for them to have that extra day,” Cerezo told Cadena Cope.
“But it seems that ‘Bilbao’ did not accept the solution, the Federation said that it was a problem between the two clubs… And I only say one thing: we are mule drivers, and we will see each other on the road. It is a Spanish saying that says what he wants to say.”
This caused great controversy in the Basque Country, with most people at Athletic disliking that they are referred to as ‘Bilbao’. Their full name is Athletic Club de Bilbao, but when dictator Francisco Franco led a military coup and subsequently 40 years of repression, he forced football club names to be made Castilian, changing their name to Atletico de Bilbao. Calling them Bilbao is disrespectful, and evokes the suppression of Basque culture by Franco.
Asked about why referred to them as such, Cerezo did not back down.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, for as long as I’ve known, they always been referred to as Bilbao,” Cerezo continued.
After the incident, Gil Marin called Athletic President Jon Uriarte to smooth things over, apologising for Cerezo and assuring him that the two clubs were not at war. It does speak to the sensitive nature of Spanish language and culture politics.
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