Pep Guardiola wears controversial yellow ribbon

Pep Guardiola, coach of Manchester City, wore the controversial yellow ribbon on Wednesday, in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 against Basel.

Unlike the English Football Federation (FA), which prohibits the display of political symbols during matches, UEFA does not sanction this type of behavior.

The ribbon has become a symbol of protest by the Catalan separatists to demand the freedom of the 'Jordis' - Jordi Sánchez and Jordi Cuixart - in prison for more than four months, and of Joaquim Forn and Oriol Junqueras, imprisoned since November 2nd, all in pretrial detention for their involvement in the independence process.

The highest authority of English football opened a case against the Spanish coach on February 23rd for wearing the ribbon during Premier League, EFL Cup, and FA Cup matches, to which Guardiola said he would stop wearing the symbol if it would harm the team.

In his last game, played last Sunday at home against Chelsea (1-0), Guardiola did not visibly wear the ribbon and replaced it on his lapel with a yellow daffodil in support of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity, while in the League Cup final against Arsenal he showed the ribbon before the game but hid it under a scarf when he stepped onto the field.

Last Tuesday, when asked about the controversial statements made by Martin Glenn, president of the FA, who compared the ribbon to the star of David, the sickle and hammer, the Nazi swastika, and to Robert Mugabe, the Catalan coach affirmed that the president said that because "he did not understand what the ribbon means."

"Martin Glenn has apologized. However, my first impression when I saw that (the statements) is that he did not understand the reasons behind the yellow ribbon. He made a comment that was very far from reality," he asserted.

"Maybe he knows now what it means. It is not about independence or non-independence (of Catalonia): it is about people who are in prison for having done nothing, it is as simple as that," he concluded.