Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti began his pre-match conference on Monday with a heartfelt statement regarding the DANA storm tragedy in the Valencian Community and Andalusia. He made it clear that his mind was not completely focused on football.
His opening statement went as follows.
“Good morning. It has been a week with a tragedy and we are sad. This is the emotion. We are very close to Valencia and all the affected towns. We are close to them and I hope it can be resolved soon. I want you to understand that talking about football is complicated. Playing football too. We are part of this country. And this affects us a lot. Out of respect for everyone, I will try to make a press conference as simple as possible, because I have no desire to talk about football. Also, for me, tomorrow’s game is a special one. I will try to talk as little as possible. Thank you.”
He made it clear that the football was very much a seconday matter for them currently.
“Yes, because you don’t have your mind on your work. It has been something terrible. We are going to prepare it, because we are professionals. We will try to play it and win it, obviously. It’s what it takes.”
Almost unanimously, footballers and managers have come out against the decision to play the remaining fixtures in La Liga beyond the Valencia and Villarreal games that were cancelled.
“Everyone in football was quite clear in that regard. Nobody wanted to play, and there was no sense in playing it. But we are not the ones who call the shots. We are professionals, and this is our job. It’s those above that take these decisions.”
A view he reiterated on several occasions.
“There are many ways to help. Football had to stop this weekend and then football had to help.”
“Football is a party. When somebody doesn’t want to go to the party, I don’t think that we should have the party. When your family is well and everyone is well. When people are not well there is no need to party. Football has to stop. For me yes. Because it is the most important of the least important things. But we can’t make decisions. We are not the ones in charge.”
On Sunday, as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and King Felipe IV visited the some of the most affected areas, they were met with anger and abuse from locals who were doing their best to clear the town. Ancelotti refused on several occasions to get involved with the political point-scoring that has occurred in Spain. He did question the lack of warning that people received for it.
“The people are frustrated, it is normal. But I’m not here to evaluate what politics has done this week. I don’t have the resources to do this. It is difficult to think about something like this in 2024. We are in 2024 with all the information we have. You can catch the exact time when it starts to rain… And you can’t fix this kind of tragedy.”
"Everyone in football was quite clear in that regard. Nobody wanted to play, and there was no sense in playing it. But we are not the ones who call the shots."
Carlo Ancelotti on the #DANA tragedy. #RealMadrid pic.twitter.com/CUmUuIlEyV
— Football España (@footballespana_) November 4, 2024
Despite the platform that managers and footballers have, Ancelotti claimed that they had no power to impact the decisions of those above them.
“The power that we have is equal to 0. We cannot make any type of decisions. All the coaches wanted to stop the game. Some have played, others have not. The coach’s decision-making power, in these cases, is equal to 0.”
“I am not the right person to answer this. There is a phrase, ‘the show must go on’, but that is not the case.”
Real Madrid face AC Milan at 21:00 CEST on Tuesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu. They did not face Valencia at the weekend due to the damage of the DANA storm, and Los Che have asked to postpone their rearranged Copa del Rey clash with Parla Escuela a second time. It comes off the back of a matchday that has been dubbed ‘the games that never should have been played’.
