(Football news) Real on Saturday won their 35th La Liga title with 4 games to spare. Carlo Ancelotti's men defeated Espanyol 4-0 at the Bernabeu with a second fiddle team to seal the trophy. Real Madrid's next league game is at the Wanda Metropolitano against Atletico Madrid who are in a very tough top 4 battle. After drawing against Granada and losing against Athletic Club, Atleti are 4th on the table just 3 points ahead of Real Betis.
As per tradition, after winning a trophy any club is welcomed by their next opponents on the pitch with a guard of honor. Atletico Madrid have reportedly refused to do so for Real Madrid. Jose Gimenez in an interview said " We congratulate Real Madrid, but we have a lot of respect for our fans.” while club captain Jan Oblak said "I don’t like to give or receive a guard of honor, but the club decides and we’ll do what’s necessary.” This isn't the first guard of honor controversy that has happened as there have been many instances before. Atletico Madrid have given a guard of honour in the past but the intense rivalry with Real Madrid makes the situation a little different.
A couple of seasons ago when Manchester City gave Premier League champions a guard of honor, Bernardo Silva was accused of being disrespectful. In 2017 when Real Madrid won the Fifa Club World Cup, Barcelona refused to give them a guard and released a statement saying that the club doesn't support giving a guard of honor for competitions they did not participate in. In the reverse fixture when Barcelona were already La Liga champions, the then Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane said that Madrid will not be giving a guard of honor because Barcelona broke the tradition in December. Barcelona's manager Ernesto Valverde responded by saying that he will never ask his team to give a guard of honor nor will he want to receive it.
There have been instances before where arch rivals have shown respect by giving guards of honor to the likes of Manchester United to Chelsea or Barcelona to Real Madrid. The argument is that the guard of honor is supposed to be a sign of respect and admiration for the opponent. But instead it has turned into a mockery of sorts, where giving a guard is considered some sort of public humiliation and acceptance of defeat which it certainly isn't. It will be interesting to see what Diego Simeone and Carlo Ancelotti think about this but in the end Simeone would be more concerned about his team finishing in the top 4 while Carlo Ancelotti will be enjoying the league title regardless.
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