Without a doubt one of the things that sparked the most controversy in these first days of the World Cup. We saw it with Achraf, with Vini and with de Jong. When a journalist asked him a question in Spanish, and the player himself was willing to respond in the same language without problems, there was always a person in charge of ensuring that Spanish is no longer spoken. A controversy that has not stopped growing on social networks these days. And FIFA has had to react.
From now on, the highest football body will allow journalists and the players and coaches themselves to speak in Spanish. FIFA, in order to facilitate the work of all media outlets, will provide a Spanish translator at all press conferences. Additionally, in the FIFA application itself, the Spanish translation function will be enabled.
Respect for Mexico
As one of the three host countries, now, out of respect and deference to MexicoFIFA will make in all press conferences it is possible to speak in Spanish. Something that only happened if any of the teams involved spoke in this language. To give an example, in Brazil-Morocco, you could speak Portuguese, Arabic, French and Italian (by Ancelotti).
FIFA President Gianni Infantino during a press conference. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)
Although it may not be a measure that is applied immediately and will take a couple of games to get underway, it seems that FIFA has already backed down. He The objective is that Spanish is always present in all pre-match press conferences. Because Mexico is the host and Spanish is spoken there. And, furthermore, after all the controversy generated, it was the most viable option.
