Spanish Fans Kick It Old School With Racism

The Associated Press’ Jerome Pugmire has a detailed look at the state of racism in soccer fandom worldwide. He finds efforts in England have (mostly) erased the troubling history of race-based taunts and riots there, and things are similarly muted in other major nations. But one place continues to fly the regrettable banner of days past: Spain.↵↵⇥Anti-racism activists say Spain has one of the bigger problems on the continent. Because England’s players endured racial taunts in Madrid in 2004, the location of this match was switched from Madrid to Sevilla. The problem lingers.
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↵⇥Real Madrid’s radical fans, the Ultra Sur, made fascist gestures and shouted extremist slogans during a match against Osasuna on Jan. 18. In his match report, referee Alfonso Perez Burrull cited “extremist or radical symbolism,” and chants that made reference to “the gas chamber, death to Osasuna” and loyalty to fascism.↵↵Just having a subset of “radical fans” seems frightening enough, let alone “radical fans” who chant about gas chambers. But the folks Pugmire quotes say Spain doesn’t believe it has a problem. Luckily, Austria believed it had a problem when the fanbase for a top club turned into a recruiting ground for neo-Nazis. (Yikes!)↵