The national side’s friendly against Egypt on Tuesday was marred by more xenophobic incidents which continue to damage the image of Spanish football, as fans booed the Egyptian national anthem and sang chants mocking Muslims.
Spain’s football federation and coach Luis de la Fuente condemned anti-Muslim chants that tainted the 0-0 draw with Egypt in Barcelona on Tuesday in a pre-World Cup friendly.
Egypt’s national anthem was jeered and the public announcement system at RCDE Stadium appealed to fans more than once to refrain from making offensive comments.
According to recordings broadcast by Spanish radio station Cadena Ser, these included a chant which went “Musulmán el que no bote” (whoever doesn’t jump is a Muslim).
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There were also insults directed at the Spanish Prime Minister: “Pedro Sánchez, hijo de puta” (Pedro Sánchez, son of a bitch).
“It’s a sad day for Spanish sport and football when thousands of racists and disrespectful people have conditioned everything that happened after,” said Cadena Ser commentator Dani Garrido post-match.
“This country is going to host a World Cup and has a serious racism problem.”
It was the latest in a string of similar incidents to overshadow Spanish football in recent years, with Real Madrid’s Brazilian attacker Vinicius Junior in particular repeatedly racially abused.
“What we’ve done is condemn these kinds of attitudes and to say they must not be repeated,” said Rafael Louzán, president of the Spanish Football Federation.
He called it “specific and isolated situations”.
De la Fuente also condemned the behaviour of a section of the 35,000 crowd.
“It’s intolerable,” he told reporters as soon as he sat down in the press room.
“Violent people use football to carve out a space for themselves.
“They must be removed from society, identified, and kept as far away as possible,” the 64-year-old added.
Police confirmed on Wednesday that they were investigating the “Islamophobic and xenophobic” chants heard during the Spain-Egypt international football match in Barcelona.
“We are investigating yesterday’s Islamophobic and xenophobic chants at RCDE Stadium during the Spain-Egypt friendly match,” Catalonia’s regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra, wrote on X.
Spanish Justice Minister Félix Bolaños on Wednesday took to X to say “racist insults and chants embarrass us as a society. The far right will not leave any space free from their hatred, and those who remain silent today will be complicit” .
The game in Catalonia was moved from Qatar due to the war in the Middle East and was played out in a hostile environment from the start.
The European champions were wasteful in attack in their penultimate friendly on home turf before they face Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay in Group H in North America this summer.
Spain are reportedly set to play Iraq on June 4th before playing Peru in Mexico four days later in their final games before the World Cup.
Veteran coach De la Fuente made 10 changes from Friday’s 3-0 friendly win over Serbia with Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal the only player to keep his place.
With additional reporting by Alex Dunham, The Local Spain’s Editor
