Discontent in Barça: demands explanations from UEFA for Flick's sanction

This Friday (August 8) it transpired that UEFA sanctioned the coach of FC Barcelona, Hansi Flick, and his assistant Marcus Sorg, with a fine of 20,000 euros and a one-match suspension in the top European football competition for incidents in the return leg of the 2024/25 Champions League semi-final at San Siro against Inter Milan. 

In this regard, Barça, after receiving official notification of the punishment imposed by UEFA, proceeded to request additional information on the grounds for the sanction and the arguments supporting it, with the aim of assessing a possible appeal, according to recent reports.

It should be remembered that the referee's reports of matches organised by UEFA are not public, which makes it impossible to know for sure what led the referee of the match, Szymon Marciniak, to include —if he did— an annex in the official report. 

Why were Flick and Sorg sanctioned?

In this context, the punishment imposed, it seems, is based on the violation of the general principles of conduct set out in Article 11.1 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR).

In addition, an additional infringement is pointed out related to the basic rules of decorous behaviour, contemplated in article 11.2.b of the same regulation.

However, the club does not deny some confusion and discontent, considering that Flick has always been a coach with an almost impeccable attitude when he is on the bench.

Although they believe it is because the German coach saw the yellow card in the final minutes of the match that his team lost 4-3, because he was upset, and in the subsequent press conference he suggested that, in the face of doubts, the refereeing decisions fell in favour of the Italian team.

Barça, without a coach for the first Champions League match

The players of the blaugrana team, for now, do not have a coach to face the first match of the 2025/26 Champions League, but someone else from the German's technical staff will have to assume that responsibility. In the event that they fail to have the punishment withdrawn, in the coming days it will be announced who will be in charge of the team in the commitment.

It should be noted that the intention of the Catalan team is to fight for the Champions League again after being on the verge of a new final after 10 years.

Barça, in the last edition of the top European competition, of 14 matches only lost three (Monaco, Borussia Dortmund and Inter). They also managed to score 43 goals and, in contrast, conceded 24.