By Paolo Laudani
MADRID, April 1 (Reuters) – Spanish police launched an investigation on Wednesday into Islamophobic and xenophobic chants during Tuesday’s friendly against Egypt which also drew criticism from players, football officials and the Spanish government.
At the RCDE Stadium near Barcelona, the home ground of LaLiga club Espanyol, Spain supporters chanted “who doesn’t jump is a Muslim” during the World Cup warm-up match which ended in a goalless draw.
Lamine Yamal, Spain’s winger and a Muslim himself, said in a post on Instagram that while he understood that not all fans are like this, the chant was disrespectful and intolerable.
“Using religion as a joke in a stadium makes you look ignorant and racist. Football is for enjoying and supporting, not for disrespecting people for who they are or what they believe,” he wrote.
Spain’s Justice Minister Felix Bolanos denounced the chants on social media platform X, reiterating the leftist government’s stance against the rise of the far right, which it associates with growing racism and xenophobia.
“Racist insults and chants shame us as a society. The far right will not leave any space free of its hatred, and those who remain silent today are complicit,” he wrote.
The Egyptian Football Association condemned what it called an entirely unacceptable “repugnant act of racism”.
The incident highlighted concerns about racism in Spanish soccer, a recurring issue notably involving Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Jr., who has been targeted in high-profile cases.
The stadium displayed messages on overhead screens, reminding fans that taking part in acts of racism and xenophobia was a crime, yet the chants continued.
Catalonia’s regional police force, Mossos d’Esquadra, said on Wednesday they had opened an investigation into the incident, without providing further details.
Spain’s coach Luis de la Fuente told reporters that the racist behaviour of fans was intolerable.
“They are not representative of football. They take advantage of football, as they do in other areas of life. We need to isolate these people from society,” he said.
The Spanish Football Federation said in a message on social media that it “stands against racism in football and condemns any act of violence inside stadiums”.
(Reporting by Paolo Laudani, additional reporting by Ashraf Hamed Atta; editing by Andrei Khalip, Ed Osmond and Pritha Sarkar)
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