Int Football - Racism forces Spain-England move

Eurosport - Mon, 13 Oct 15:03:00 2008

England's friendly against Spain is set to be moved from its scheduled venue of Madrid next year over fears that racism could again become the overriding feature of the match.

2008 England Jermain Defoe Emile Heskey Shaun Wright-Phillips - 0

The last time England played Spain in Madrid, in 2004, sections of the crowd at the Bernabeu stadium rained racist chants down on some of England's players.

Shaun Wright-Phillips was abused - along with Ashley Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Jermain Defoe and Jermaine Jenas. The Spanish Federation were eventually fined 56,000 euros.

And with England striker Emile Heskey a recent victim of racist monkey chants from Croatia fans during their recent World Cup qualifier, the FA are keen to avoid having to play in the Spanish capital.

Although an official agreement is yet to be reached between the FA and their Spanish counterparts, the fixture is expected to be played on Wednesday, February 11, the only remaining FIFA international date still to be filled.

"This fixture is one of the friendly games that Fabio Capello requested to play. But as yet, a venue is still to be confirmed and the contract still to be signed," said FA director of communications Adrian Bevington.

"However, from the outset, the FA, with Fabio, were clear we would not play the fixture in Madrid due to the incidents of racial abuse we faced last time.

"Fabio is totally supportive of this fixture."

With Madrid ruled out, Seville and Valencia would appear the most likely alternatives.

Spain do not have a national stadium and play in a large number of cities. Their last 10 home games have taken place in Albacete, Murcia, Santander, Huelva, Elche, Malaga, Las Palmas, Madrid, Oviedo and Mallorca.

They have not played in Barcelona since 2004.

Rather than see the problem simply move from one city to another, the FA have vowed to work closely with the Spanish Federation on a number of anti-racism measures before the proposed fixture, which both bodies are expected to support.

Capello, the former coach of Real Madrid, regards Spain as the best international side in Europe at the moment, and worthy winners of Euro 2008.

With Liverpool's Fernando Torres spearheading their attack and Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas also in the Spain squad, there is significant Premier League interest.

Spain are currently captained by Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas and beat Estonia 3-0 on Saturday in their latest World Cup qualifier.

AFP

Comment 1 - 12 of 52

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. yosef9636 you are a halfwit!
    Are you suggesting that England have a "Whites only" policy? That sounds like aparteid!

    From Count Louis Zborowski, on Mon 13 Oct 12:55PM

  2. What the point of Spain being charged for racism its the so called few "fans" who are the problem and I'm sure they dont care if the Spanish FA get fined if only these people were the ones being fined. And whats the point of playing in another part of Spain I'm sure these same people are able to drive to the match where ever it is.

    So I think the game should be closed to the Spanish or the game is played in another country surely only true Spain supporters would go to the game.

    From empirecostumegroup, on Mon 13 Oct 12:07PM

  3. Elche is the stadium for the game, thousands of expats mix in very well with the locals. An obvious choice.

    From nigelwood915@..., on Mon 13 Oct 12:07PM

  4. i think this racist people are not really racist they are just trying to say england is a cheating nation bringing in african players who are not with original english roots playing for england yes there are other nations doing this these days e.g france but i think this is unfair i think the rules should be were your roots are from you should play for that country.

    From YOSEF, on Mon 13 Oct 12:03PM

  5. i like my face

    From matt_hagland, on Mon 13 Oct 11:54AM

  6. Can we please have the England vSpain match transferred to ELCHE/ELX you might just get aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ah unred Thousand expats decending upon the place. Elche is within a couple of miles of Alicante aeroporte and the conections to Elche are good.And whats more Easy Jet,Ryanair Monarch and co will love it. And the fans will love it if they do not increase their fares for the occasion. Go on Fabrio go for it youv'e played their before!

    From Dispair, on Mon 13 Oct 11:49AM

  7. At soon as our players hear the first racist chant the captain goes go to the referee and informs him he is taking the the team from the pitch.

    The sooner as the FA, EUFA & FIFA start backing our national teams the sooner they can reenter a particular cpompetition again. Once the Carlsberg, Ford and Nike spomsors see their products are being associated racist venues maybe they'll force the gutless authorities to take action.

    From PADDY B, on Mon 13 Oct 11:47AM

  8. well i don´t agree to ban national or club team because some morons whom probably don´t even like football decide to show up and put on an ugly display of intolerance.

    dzidzidzi32 are you affraid or what ? to play the best you have to play with the best...even being portuguese i don´t see better teams in Europe than Spain because they are now a mature team that can play blinfolded and display wonderfully skilled football like Portugal,France,Russia and some eastern countries.

    From Pedro Ramones, on Mon 13 Oct 11:44AM

  9. Damn, I was looking forward to going to the game.

    I'm not sure moving the game to another city will help much. It's not that Madrid is any more racist than any other Spanish city (in fact it's one of the more multicultural cities), more that wherever you go there will be a few idiots....

    From stephen, on Mon 13 Oct 11:26AM

  10. It's about time that FIFA takes the bull by the horns and takes on the challenge of racism. Whether that be at club, or international level. Commemt 1 is on the right track, but I think the punishmentas need to be much more severe... even to the extent (for repeat offenders) of banning them from international tournaments such as the Euros, or world cup or even champions league / UEFA cup for club teams. Chanting fans would learn their lesson pretty quick if this were to happen!!! I just wonder whether or not FIFA have the guts to do something like this - I very much doubt it unfortunately!!!

    From capt.picard@..., on Mon 13 Oct 11:22AM

  11. just chuck them out

    From thfc2008, on Mon 13 Oct 11:12AM

  12. Basically you are only attempting to treat the symptoms here...the disease is racism and treatment
    (1) being FIFA to ban Spain from playing at home for 3 international matches for each racist incident plus financial charge(2) second racial incident will result in match point deduction and hefty financial charge.

    And why playing spain? thre are other better teams we can play against despite Spain winning the Euro.

    From dzidzidzi32, on Mon 13 Oct 11:09AM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account