Spain’s football federation is taking its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after FIFA rejected an appeal against sanctions imposed for Islamophobic chants by supporters during a match against Egypt in March. FIFA fined the federation (RFEF) $20,000 and ordered it to close at least 15% of the available seats for Spain’s next home friendly. The sanctions follow incidents at the RCDE Stadium near Barcelona, home of LaLiga club Espanyol, where some Spain fans chanted, “If you don’t jump, you’re a Muslim” during the goalless World Cup warm-up match.
After the second occurrence of the chant, the stadium announcer issued a warning and the scoreboard displayed a message against discriminatory behaviour. Spain winger Lamine Yamal, who is Muslim, condemned the chants at the time, describing them as disrespectful and intolerable and calling those responsible “ignorant and racist”. Spanish police launched an investigation the following day while world governing body FIFA later started disciplinary proceedings against the RFEF.
The RFEF argued that the word ‘Muslim’ was “neither insulting nor pejorative”, adding the fans’ conduct should be assessed under FIFA’s Article 17, which covers political, ideological, religious or offensive messages, rather than Article 15, which deals with discrimination and racist abuse. FIFA’s disciplinary committee rejected that argument, saying Article 15 does not require the explicit use of a slur and that a term can be discriminatory when used in context as “an insult, taunt, or marker of inferiority”. The RFEF appealed the sanction, but a FIFA spokesperson told that it was dismissed last week, prompting the Spanish federation to take the case to CAS, the highest authority in sports disputes.
The chants were detected by the RFEF’s monitoring systems and immediately reported to the match officials, the official said, adding that security was reinforced in the affected section of the stadium.
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