MADRID (Reuters) – Three people were arrested for allegedly chanting racist insults at two Barcelona players during an El Clasico match against Real Madrid in October, Spanish police said on Saturday.
Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal, who is of Equatorial Guinean and Moroccan heritage, was among the players targeted with xenophobic and racist abuse during the game at the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid.
Barcelona beat arch rivals Real 4-0, with Yamal among the scorers.
Spain’s National Police said in a post on social media platform X on Saturday: “Three (people were) arrested for uttering racist insults against two football players during the El Clasico match played last October.”
“Those arrested made xenophobic statements that violated the dignity and moral integrity of both footballers.”
The Spanish Supreme Sports Council (CSD) and La Liga condemned the incidents.
“LaLiga will immediately report the racist insults and gestures received by Barcelona players to the Hate Crimes Section of the National Police Information Brigade, as well as informing the Coordinating Prosecutor of the Hate Crimes and Discrimination Unit of the State Attorney General’s Office,” LaLiga said in a statement.
Real Madrid opened an investigation to identify the perpetrators.
Spain’s migration minister Elma Saiz condemned the incident.
“We will not allow aggressions that we do not tolerate in other spaces to become normalized in sports,” she said in a statement.
The RFEF said it was enforcing a zero-tolerance policy on racist abuse and violence in stadiums, calling it a “social scourge.”
The RFEF and LaLiga have taken measures to tackle a rise in racist abuse, including partial stadium closures.
In October, police in Spain arrested four men accused of coordinating an online hate campaign that called for racial abuse to be hurled at Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior.
(Reporting by Graham Keeley; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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