FIFA have issued a dramatic U-turn just days into the World Cup after a ban on speaking Spanish at press conferences sparked widespread outrage. The six-week football extravaganza kicked off in North America last week with some of the world’s biggest stars flocking to the continent in pursuit of international football’s ultimate prize.
But attention quickly shifted away from matters on the pitch when it became apparent that players and coaches were being discouraged from speaking Spanish during certain official media appearances. The controversy erupted over the weekend when stars, including Brazil’s Vinicius Junior and Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi, were forced to answer questions in English, despite being fluent Spanish speakers.
In the case of Hakimi, the PSG right-back was preparing to answer a question from a Mexican interviewer when the journalist was cut off by a FIFA representative and told to switch to English. The intervention prompted an awkward moment that quickly went viral as Hakimi, who was born in Madrid, jokingly replied: “How do I answer, in English or in Spanish?”
The situation fuelled criticism on social media and from language groups, who were quick to point out the irony of sidelining Spanish at a World Cup being co-hosted by Mexico and the United States, home to tens of millions of native Spanish speakers. In response, FIFA initially insisted that there was no outright ban, instead blaming a lack of translation services.
Under the system used during the opening days of the tournaments, players, coaches and journalists were limited to English and the official languages of the two teams involved. But under revised rules announced on Monday, journalists will now be able to ask questions in Spanish at any official World Cup press conference, while players and coaches will be free to respond in Spanish regardless of which nations are involved in the match. Translation services will also be provided throughout.
The decision was welcomed by the Instituto Cervantes, Spain’s state-backed organisation dedicated to promoting Spanish language and culture across the world. Its director, Luis Garcia Montero, had branded the original policy “baffling” and said FIFA had “put itself offside” by excluding one of the world’s most widely-spoken languages. He added that the move “made no sense at all”, pointing to the “more than 60 million people of Hispanic origin in the United States, of whom more than 43 million state that their mother tongue is Spanish”.
In a tongue-in-cheek message on social media celebrating the reversal, the institute simply declared: “Bravo to VAR.”
