The pre-match playing of the Spanish national anthem prompted widespread booing from Catalan nationalist fans of FC Barcelona and Basque nationalist fans of Athletic Bilbao. Televisión Española (TVE) cut away from its coverage as soon as this started and consequently did not show the playing of the anthem live, instead showing it at half time with the booing edited out. Afterwards, its director Javier Pons apologised for the "mistake", and Julian Reyes, the head of sports news, was fired as a result of the censorship.[2]