FIFA opens disciplinary case over chants in Spain v Egypt game | OneFootball

Fifa confirmed to AFP on Tuesday (7) that it has opened disciplinary proceedings against the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) over Islamophobic chants that were heard during the friendly between Spain and Egypt, held in Barcelona last week.

The match, played between two teams already qualified for the 2026 World Cup at the Cornellà stadium, home of Espanyol, was marked by Islamophobic chants (“Whoever doesn’t jump is Muslim”) sung by part of the Spanish crowd.

The incident sparked a wave of indignation in Spain, as well as the opening of an investigation by Catalonia’s regional police.

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, strongly condemned, one day after the events, the “minority” of fans who “tarnished” Spain’s image — as a future co-host of the 2030 World Cup alongside Portugal and Morocco, a Muslim-majority country.

For his part, Barcelona’s young star and ‘La Roja’ standout Lamine Yamal, who is Muslim, denounced the chants, calling them an “intolerable lack of respect.”

Despite the efforts of the authorities and several court rulings, this case once again highlights the difficulties Spanish football faces in its fight to eradicate racism and xenophobia from its stadiums, where incidents like this have multiplied in recent months.

Brazilian Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior, who has become a symbol of the fight against racism in football, has frequently been the target of hostility since arriving in Madrid in 2018. However, only a fraction of these incidents has resulted in sanctions.

*By AFP.

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.