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Spain have been fined $20,000 and ordered to partially close their stadium for their next friendly after supporters chanted Islamophobic slogans twice during a game against Egypt in March, Fifa said in a statement.
The sanctions relate to incidents at the RCDE Stadium near Barcelona, home of LaLiga club Espanyol, where some Spain fans chanted, “Who doesn’t jump is a Muslim” during a World Cup warm-up match which ended in a 0-0 draw.
After the second occurrence of the chant, the stadium announcer issued a warning and the scoreboard displayed a message against discriminatory behaviour. Spain winger Lamine Yamal, who is Muslim, condemned the chants at the time, describing them as disrespectful and intolerable and calling those responsible “ignorant and racist”.
Spanish police launched an investigation the following day while world governing body Fifa later started disciplinary proceedings against the Spanish football federation (Rfef).
The Rfef argued that the word ‘Muslim’ was “neither insulting nor pejorative”, adding the fans’ conduct should be assessed under Fifa’s Article 17, which covers political, ideological, religious or offensive messages, rather than Article 15, which deals with discrimination and racist abuse.
However, Fifa’s disciplinary committee rejected that argument, saying Article 15 does not require the explicit use of a slur and that a term can be discriminatory when used in context as “an insult, taunt, or marker of inferiority”.
Fifa fined the Rfef and ordered the closure of at least 15 percent of available seats for Spain’s next friendly.
After failing in its appeal, Rfef will take its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas), with a high-ranking federation official telling Reuters: “Throughout the proceedings, the RFEF has maintained that it acted immediately, diligently and effectively from the moment it became aware of the incidents.
“Furthermore, the measures taken ensured that the chants were not repeated and that the spectators present in the stadium themselves expressed their disapproval of such behaviour.”
The official said the federation considered the sanctions particularly severe, arguing that comparable capacity restrictions had not been imposed automatically in more serious cases or those involving previous disciplinary offences. Reuters has contacted Fifa for comment.
Yamal, meanwhile, has spoken out against experiencing racism “a thousand times” in social media posts last month. The Barcelona winger explained:
“A thousand times [I’ve experienced racism]. People are indirectly racist towards you, even though they don’t realise it. There are lots of comments or looks that are racist, and they don’t realise it.
“I’m at a place where, it’s not that it’s accepted, because you can never accept something that’s wrong, but it doesn’t bother you.”
