Real Madrid and La Liga to take action after alleged racist abuse of Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal
Real Madrid and La Liga have announced that they will take action after Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal was allegedly racially abused during El Clasico on Saturday night.
The 17-year-old played the entire game, scoring Barcelona’s third goal during their 4-0 victory and becoming the youngest-ever Clasico scorer in the process.
Videos on social media appeared to show the Spain international being subjected to racist abuse from Real Madrid fans in the stands at the Santiago Bernabeu while preparing to take a corner after his goal.
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A statement from Real read: “Real Madrid strongly condemns any kind of behaviour involving racism, xenophobia or violence in football and sport, and deeply regrets the insults that a few fans uttered last night in one of the corners of the stadium.
“Real Madrid has opened an investigation in order to locate and identify the perpetrators of these deplorable and despicable insults so that appropriate disciplinary and judicial action can be taken.”
La Liga said: “La Liga condemns and will denounce the racist insults that took place in El Clasico. In view of the events that took place during the course of the Real Madrid CF – FC Barcelona match, during which intolerable racist behaviour was observed, La Liga have immediately referred the incident to the Hate Section of the Information Brigade of the National Police and have informed the National Police.
“We will inform the Coordinating Prosecutor of the Hate Crimes and Racist Offences Unit of the Hate Crimes and Discrimination Unit of the State Attorney General’s Office.
“La Liga strongly condemns these events that took place at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium and remains firm in its commitment to eradicate any kind of racist behaviour and hatred inside and outside the stadium inside and outside stadiums. There is no place in sport for this scourge.”
In a video, a fan can be heard yelling “Go and sell tissues at traffic lights” while shouts calling him a “f***ing moor” (a racist term for a member of the Muslim community of North Africa, of mixed Arab and Amazigh descent) can be heard. Yamal’s father, Mounir Nasraoui, is from Morocco.
Barcelona also condemned the incident when approached for comment by The Athletic and confirmed that they intend to submit a formal complaint to La Liga.
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(Angel Martinez/Getty Images)
