Fifa fines Spain and orders partial stadium closure over Islamophobic chants at Egypt friendly

Fifa has sanctioned the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) with a $20,000 fine and a partial stadium closure after supporters chanted Islamophobic slogans twice during Spain’s World Cup warm-up match against Egypt on 25 March, which ended 0-0 at the RCDE Stadium near Barcelona.

The chant — “Who doesn’t jump is a Muslim” — was directed at the crowd on two separate occasions during the game, which was played at the home of LaLiga club Espanyol. After the second occurrence, the stadium announcer issued a warning and an anti-discrimination message was displayed on the scoreboard. The RFEF must now close at least 15% of available seats for Spain’s next friendly as part of the punishment.

Spain winger Lamine Yamal, who is Muslim, condemned the chants immediately after the match, describing them as “disrespectful and intolerable” and calling those responsible “ignorant and racist”. Spanish police launched an investigation the following day before Fifa opened formal disciplinary proceedings against the federation.

The RFEF contested the charges, arguing that the word “Muslim” was “neither insulting nor pejorative” and that the fans’ behaviour 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, ruling that Article 15 does not require the explicit use of a slur and that a term can be discriminatory when deployed in context as “an insult, taunt, or marker of inferiority”.

Yamal has since spoken more broadly about his experiences of racism, saying last month that he had encountered it “a thousand times”. “People are indirectly racist towards you, even though they don’t realise it,” the Barcelona winger said. “There are lots of comments or looks that are racist, and they don’t realise it. I’m at a place where, it’s not that it’s accepted, because you can never accept something that’s wrong, but it doesn’t bother you.”

The RFEF had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.