FIFA keeps punishment for racist chants during Spain's match

The FIFA Appeal Committee has turned down a Spanish request to lift the punishment for racist chants during a friendly match against Egypt in March. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) shared this news on Friday.

During the game against Egypt at the Cornella, home of Espanyol, on March 31, some fans chanted, “whoever doesn’t jump is Muslim.”

On August 4, about three weeks after Spain won the World Cup, FIFA’s disciplinary committee hit Spain with a fine of $20,000 (17,800 euros) and ordered the closure of at least 15 percent of the stadium for their next home friendly.

The RFEF said on Friday that this behavior “was detected by the Federation’s own monitoring mechanisms.” They added that announcements were made to urge fans to stop the chanting at half-time and again during the second half. They also showed messages on the stadium video screens.

The RFEF mentioned that they fully cooperated to identify those responsible. They plan to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

One player who started the match, forward Lamine Yamal, plays for Barcelona, a rival of Espanyol. He was born in a neighborhood close to the Cornella stadium and is Muslim. He described the chants as “a lack of respect and something intolerable.”

Spain’s manager, Luis de la Fuente, also spoke out against the chants, calling them “intolerable.” He said, “Violent individuals exploit football to carve out a space for themselves. They must be removed from society, identified, and the further away the better.”

The Egyptian Football Association released a statement that expressed its “total condemnation of the vile racist incident” by some spectators who “went beyond the limits.”