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Warwick Smith/Stuff
Spain captain Ivana Andres apologises on behalf of her team.
Spain waited until their official welcome in Palmerston North to apologise for mocking the haka.
Spain captain Ivana Andrés made a speech at the event, held at Te Marae o Hine in the town square on Monday morning, in which she apologised to local iwi Rangitāne O Manawatū on behalf of the team.
She also gifted them a No 10 playing shirt with Papaioea, the Māori name for Palmerston North, on the back.
The world No 6, whose star-studded squad is headlined by two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, caused a stir upon arrival to New Zealand when a video was posted to their social media channels of four players pretending to perform a haka.
The short clip was deleted amid swift backlash, but it was only on Monday, at their official welcome, more than a week after the video was posted, that Spain had acknowledged the incident, despite multiple requests for comment.
Warwick Smith/Stuff
Ivana Andres presents local iwi with a playing shirt.
Andrés, a centre-back from Real Madrid, made her speech in Spanish towards the end of an hour-long pōwhiri, but it was translated to English by a team liaison out of earshot of the attending media.
Rangitāne O Manawatū speaker, professor Meihana Durie, said Spain’s apology was sincere and he thought Monday’s event was the appropriate setting to acknowledge their mistake.
“We had seen what had happened last week and as a people we guard our taonga, the haka, very vigorously, but the amazing thing about our tikanga is it allows for those sorts of things to be corrected and atoned for, and certainly this morning we agreed that they did a wonderful job of bringing forth a very authentic apology for what had happened,” Durie said.
“We didn’t want to focus too much of our energy and kōrero on that but we accepted the apology, not just for Rangitāne but for Māori.
“Their words came from the heart and there was an acknowledgement that they understood the haka is very precious, not only to Māori, but to all of Aotearoa. In terms of what happened today at the pōwhiri, today was a very good outcome.”
Spain, who boast some of the best players in the world, including several members of Barcelona’s Champions League squad, will be based away from the spotlight in New Zealand’s eighth-largest city throughout the group stage.
It is quite the juxtaposition given 80,000 people – which is almost Palmerston North’s entire population – swarmed the streets of Barcelona to celebrate when Putellas and her all-conquering Barcelona club-mates won Spain’s Liga F for the fourth year in a row this season.
Putellas went on to lead Barcelona to their second Champions League triumph with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over German club Wolfsburg.
This week, many of those some players are training out of Massey University.
Despite their huge profile globally, Monday’s welcome was a largely low-key affair with just a handful of onlookers stopping by for a glimpse of footballing royalty, even though it took place in a prominent public setting in the middle of town.
A group of young men were playing basketball on a nearby outdoor court throughout the pōwhiri, while some workers at the Palmerston North City Council had the best seat in the house, peering out of windows from above.
Now sporting pink hair, Putellas was hard to miss and she was easily the most sought-after player as some attendees managed to score a photo with one of the sport’s true superstars as Spain players and guests snacked on club sandwiches and muffins in a marquee erected to the side of the town square.
Spain have arrived at the World Cup with the goal of going all the way and winning the tournament for the first time, though their preparation has been overshadowed by a dispute between 15 of the country’s leading players and the Royal Spanish Football Federation.
Spain open the World Cup against Costa Rica in Wellington on Friday night.
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