The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has handed Atlético Madrid a €45,000 (£37,000) fine and ordered a three-game partial closure of their Cívitas Metropolitano stadium after Sunday night’s city derby was suspended when supporters threw objects at the Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. The club could also still face further punishment as the government’s anti-violence commission investigates allegations of racist abuse aimed at Vinícius Júnior.
The referee, Mateo Busquets Ferrer, took the teams off the pitch in the 68th minute, per the formal protocol, after two appeals over the loud speakers did not stop the missiles, including lighters, bottles and plastic bags. The teams returned to the pitch 15 minutes later and the game was concluded with a late Atlético equaliser.
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“We do not need these people in our stands,” Diego Simeone said after the game, but he also accused Courtois of provoking supporters.
The RFEF’s competition committee met on Wednesday, deciding upon a €45,000 fine and the closure of the lower south stand, from where the objects came, for league games against Leganés, Las Palmas and Alavés. The punishment does not apply in Champions League games. Atlético have the right to appeal, temporarily suspending the closure.
The disciplinary code contemplates fines of up to €6,000 and a one-game partial stadium closure when it is the first offence in a season, but the committee judged that Atlético had not taken the necessary measures to prevent the incidents considering the nature of the rivalry and the significance of the fixture. The committee said it welcomed Atlético’s efforts to identify the perpetrators, one of whom has so far been located and banned for life, but considered retrospective action insufficient.
This is the fourth time that Atlético have been handed punishment for the behaviour of supporters in the south stand, where members of the far-right ultra group the Frente Atlético gather. Last April, the stand was closed following racist abuse aimed at Nico Williams, although that punishment was not served following an appeal. Uefa punished the club when supporters performed fascist salutes during a Champions League game at Manchester City in 2022, and for the throwing of flares in the Europa League in 2018.
The punishment could have been greater had the objects hit Courtois but that did not prevent the committee defining the incidents as serious. “Although the objects were small, there is no doubt that they could cause injury taking into account the distance from which some objects were thrown, with the possibility that they impact upon the head or face of the opposition goalkeeper at whom they were aimed,” the judgment read.
The state commission against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport has opened a separate investigation into allegations of racist chants aimed at Vinícius.
