Minor Who Racially Abused FC Barcelona's Lamine Yamal Gets Sentence

Forbes

2 days ago

A minor that racially abused FC Barcelona star Lamine Yamal in the Bernabeu last October, as his team won El Clasico 4-0 against Real Madrid, received punishment on Tuesday afternoon in Spain.
On November 23, 2024, Spain's National Police confirmed that it had arrested three people, one of whom was a minor, for uttering racist insults at two Barca players, who were namely Lamine and his teammate Alejandro Balde, who share African descendancy.
The abuse was picked up by mobile phones and television operators that covered the match, and appeared to take place as Lamine celebrated a screamer on his supposedly weaker right foot by turning his back to the home crowd and pointing to the name emblazoned across his Blaugrana shirt.
While the league promised to act, Madrid released a statement saying that it "strongly condemns any type of behaviour that involves racism, xenophobia or violence in football and sport, and deeply regrets the insults that a few fans uttered last night in one of the corners of the stadium".
"Real Madrid has opened an investigation in order to locate and identify the perpetrators of these regrettable and despicable insults, in order to adopt the relevant disciplinary and judicial measures," it added.
Lamine and Balde also received support from Madrid star Vinicius Jr., whose fight against racism in Spanish soccer stadiums has been well-documented.
At a press conference in February, Lamine was reminded of the furore and said: 'When you're winning 0-3 or 0-4 they can tell you anything, in the end they can't do anything. They are watching you play, they are watching you beat them in their stadium,' Lamine said.
'They are seeing how they can't get to the ball and it's the only thing they have left. So, as Balde said, let them call me black or whatever... I am and it doesn't bother me. We are proud,' the teenager further stated.
A few months later, La Liga confirmed that the minor Real Madrid fan has been identified, admitted what he was accused of and has been banned from attending matches for a year while made to do 30 hours of 'socio-educational tasks'. Furthermore, according to SPORT, the young person in question will write an apology to Lamine.