FIFA upholds punishment for anti-Muslim chants at Spain match

The FIFA Appeal Committee has rejected an appeal by the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) regarding punishments issued for racist chants during a friendly match against Egypt. The match took place on March 31 at the Cornella stadium. According to Malay Mail, part of the crowd chanted “whoever doesn’t jump is Muslim.”

The disciplinary committee's original ruling, imposed on August 4, included a $20,000 fine and the closure of at least 15 per cent of the stadium for Spain's next home friendly. Ajel English notes the incident occurred in Barcelona, while Malay Mail reports the RFEF detected the misconduct through its own monitoring mechanisms and attempted to urge the crowd to stop via announcements and stadium video screens.

Following the rejection, the RFEF stated it would appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Regarding the chants, Malay Mail reports that forward Lamine Yamal called them "intolerable," and manager Luis de la Fuente also described the behavior as "intolerable."

Brief written by urgent.news from The Local Spain, Malay Mail, Punch, Punch Nigeria, Ajel English — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.