He Athletic Bilbao This Wednesday, it sent a statement by email to its members to give their version of the tribute, in the form of a kick-off, that was given to the climbers last Saturday. Martin Zabaleta and Pasang Temba for having reached the summit in Everest in 1980. The act, approved by the League, provoked controversy and indignation when remembering that at that time the Gipuzkoan mountaineer posed with an ikurriña that had the anagram of ETA.
This is the text sent by the Basque club:
«Kaixo, athleticzale.
After a reasonable amount of time has elapsed since the celebration of the kick-off of Martin Zabaleta and Pasang TembaAthletic Club considers it appropriate to give you some explanations and offer you some clarifications about what happened. We have preferred not to speak out in the midst of the media and social network noise because it meant giving the controversy attention that we believe it does not deserve and which, furthermore, is likely to have caused the opposite effect to the desired one, knowing the defamatory nature of the majority of the attacks that the Club has received.
However, it is our duty, as an athlete that you are and in defense of our Club, to inform you of some facts that are fundamental to us.
The first of them, and the most basic, is that the Athletic Club, through the honor kick, paid tribute exclusively to the sporting feat and those who achieved it, and disassociates itself from any political interpretation or value judgment that has been self-interestedly made. of the act. The sporting feat that Martin Zabaleta and the Pasang Temba Sherpa, along with the rest of their team, achieved on May 14, 1980 was extraordinary, magnificent and unforgettable.
Countless reports and publications have been published about the significance and success of this expedition, at that time and also commemorative (the latest, in 2020, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary), in very diverse media outlets, local, state, international and varied ideological tendency. The movie “Agur Everest”, the books “Basques on Everest” and “Everest. Basque Expedition 1980”, as well as the mention in the mountaineering documentary “The Feeling of the Mountain”, from the TVE series Al filo de lo impossible, are also a good example of the sporting merit of this ascent.
It is also worth remembering that this kick-off, approved by LaLiga, is part of the events and tributes of the centenary of the Basque-Navarra Mountaineering Federation, one of the most important sports and hobbies in the Basque Country and which has produced international figures such as the brothers Iñurrategi, Juanito Oiarzabal, Edurne Pasaban, Juanjo San Sebastián, Felipe Uriarte, Alex Txikon and a long etcetera.
In addition, the event represented special recognition to the Sherpa Pasang Temba, whom Martin Zabaleta photographed at the summit of Everest, giving him the visibility he deserved and renouncing himself to be the one immortalized.
One last consideration. Regarding the hoaxes spread, you should know that Athletic Club does not know, neither before nor after the kick-off, any photograph of an ikurriña with the anagram of ETA neither on the summit of Everest nor with Martin Zabaleta. Nor any statement by Martin Zabaleta in favor of ETA or endorsing that anagram of ETA (an anagram is very different from a slogan; Zabaleta did personally assume the slogan “Nuklearrik? Ez, eskerrik asko”).
In recent days we have heard and read real atrocities, but if there is something that is indisputable, and that we show both on and off the field of play, it is our genuine identity. Despite whoever it may be, Athletic Club represents a plural community and defends the values linked to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, and especially equality, inclusion, diversity, equity, respect and peace, and condemns violence and terrorism in all its manifestations.
“Eskerrik asko eta Aupa Athletic!”
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