Spanish Racist Chanting - That'll teach them...

Posted by: Tarquin Maynard - Portly on 22 December 2004

From Sky Sports: a crippling fine to the Spanish FA that will really make them sit up and take notice.

Not.



Fifa have fined the Spanish FA (RFEF) 100,000 Swiss francs (£44,750) for racist chants made by fans at friendly internationals against England last month.

England's black players were verbally abused by fans at both the Under-21 game, and the senior side's match at El Santiago Bernabeu.

Fifa announced the punishment following a meeting of their disciplinary committee in Zurich on Tuesday.

In a statement, world football's governing body warned that any repeat of such racist abuse could lead to Spain having to play future matches behind closed doors or even expulsion from major tournaments.

The news is bound to dismay some in the game who had called for that kind of harsh punishment this time around to try and help eradicate the problem.

Spain manager Luis Aragones is currently under investigation by the RFEF for comments made about Arsenal's Thierry Henry and England's colonial past prior to the game on November 17.



Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.
Posted on: 22 December 2004 by 7V
This is a disgracefully weak act by Fifa. I have no doubt that the racist chants will continue, as will the racism by officials like Aragones.

It's as well that Spain v England was a 'friendly' match. There is no way that we can determine the effects of the crowd behaviour on the England team but if they had been put off half as much as I was as a spectator then the match would have been meaningless.

Disgusted, but not surprised
Steve M
Posted on: 22 December 2004 by HTK
Not good enough. My first impression was that this sends out a wrong message - but maybe it's the right message. Which is depressing. Not that a small cross section of Spain is unique when it comes to overt racisism, but that's another topic.

You'd think that at the very least their manager would be unemployed by now.

Cheers

Harry
Posted on: 23 December 2004 by stevie d
The fines dished out in Football are pathetic. Recently Robert Pires was fined £35,000 for wearing a t-shirt with the wrong brand on it.

Spain took around £2m in gate receipts etc for that game (allegedly) fined 45 grand - Pathetic.

Now if it had been English fans.....