La Liga: Getafe told to partially close ground for racist incidents against Sevilla

Spanish La Liga side Getafe has been penalised with a partial ground closure punishment for their next three home games by the Disciplinary Committee of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) as punishment for racist insults aimed at Sevilla coach Quique Sanchez Flores and defender Marcos Acuna during last Saturday’s game between the two sides.

The club from the south of Madrid has also been given a 27,000-euro (29,100 US dollars) fine for the incidents which were reflected in the post-game report of referee Javier Iglesias Villanueva.

The insults came from the middle of Getafe’s main stand, and it will now be closed and cordoned off for La Liga games against Real Sociedad, Athletic Club Bilbao and Atletico Madrid, Xinhua said in a report.

“In the 68th minute, I had to halt the game after there were racist insults towards the number 19 of the visiting team, with words such as ‘Acuna monkey’ and ‘Acuna you come from a monkey’, from fans seated in the middle of the ground, behind the position of my second assistant.”

“According to the protocols for these cases, the incident was announced by megaphone and the play wasn’t restarted for another two and a half minutes, with no further incidents,” wrote the referee.

Sevilla coach, Sanchez Flores, who has had three spells coaching Getafe, was also insulted by the same fans, who called him a “gypsy” although the referee made no mention of that in his report.