• Slurs mar pre-match ‘Moment of Silence’ for ex-Barca star Johan Cruyff
• La Liga denounces chants in report to Royal Spanish Football Federation
Spain’s LGBT rights watchdog organization StopLGBTfobia (Observatorio Espanol contra la LGTBfobia) has denounced homophobic slurs shouted repeatedly by fans of Futbol Club Barelona against Real Madrid player Cristiano Ronaldo, tarnishing an official pre-match “Moment of Silence” honoring former Barcelona legendary player and coach Johan Cruyff at the ‘El Clasico’ match on 31st March at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium.
Spain’s ‘La Liga’ football league has denounced the incident within a routine report to the Anti-Violence Commission of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, required to be filed whenever any incidents occur that “incite violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance” at league football matches.
Calling the homophobic chants by Barcelona fans both “regrettable and shameful,” StopLGBTfobia director Francisco Ramírez said in a statement that although the incident is sanctionable under the terms of the country’s 2007 Sports Law, players and officials have for years been repeatedly subjected to homophobic insults “without there ever having been handed down a single public and exemplary sanction in order to end the continous presence of homophobia in Spanish football.”
► Read More in Spanish at 20minutos and Sport …
► Read More in English at The Olive Press and ESPN …
► Read La Liga press release in Spanish here …
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