Barça's sixth consecutive Copa del Rey final and, as on the previous five occasions, the first protagonists of the evening were the whistles. The fiercely anti-monarchist fans of Futbol Club Barcelona dedicated a monumental whistling to Spain's king Felipe VI, who listened to a half-blocked-out Spanish national anthem, although the volume was turned up to the maximum at the Benito Villamarín stadium in Seville.
The minutes immediately before the Copa del Rey final between Barça and Valencia were again controversial. A high proportion of the culer fans whistled and booed and some also turned their back on the Spanish monarch. The opposite to the attitude taken by the Valencian fans.
An extraordinary whistling that will again be the subject of controversy and complaints throughout Spain. It now remains to be seen if this high-decibel whistling in Seville, the ninth in the last decade of Copa del Rey finals, ends with a new threat of fines and penalties.
Barça has won the last four finals of the Copa in a row, but the team has played the last five consecutive finals, losing to Real Madrid in 2014, before beating Athletic Bilbao, Alavés and Seville (twice).