The league football match between Getafe and Seville in Spain last weekend was marred by fans from the Getafe home side shouting racist abuse at Seville player Marcos Acuña, causing the referees to interrupt the duel for several minutes. The Seville side's trainer, who used to work with the Getafe team and is proud of his Romani origin, also complained after the match that he had been targeted with racially-motivated insults from the stands. Referees stopped the match at the 68th minute and did not resume play until the announcer called on fans to refrain from racist, xenophobic insults. According to the records of the match, Getafe fans called Acuña, who played for the victorious national team of Argentina in the 2022 World Cup, a “monkey”, among other things.
Judges did not officially mention any other incidents. However, Seville trainer Enrique “Quique” Sánchez Flores complained that some Getafe fans also targeted him for insults over his Romani origin.
“I am proud to be Roma with every pore of my body, but it’s one thing to be Roma and another to be insulted because of it,” the Seville trainer and former player said after the match. “There are fans who believe they can say whatever they want in the stadium. It happens in each and every stadium,” Sánchez Flores said, adding that some fans for Getafe did also object to the racism.
Seville defeated Getafe 1:0 and condemned the fans’ racist behavior. The interruption of the match and reprimanding of the viewers was also condoned by Getafe coach José Bordalás.
Support for the referees’ decision was also expressed on the X social media site by Brazilian footballer Vinicius Junior, who has been repeatedly targeted with racist insults while playing for Real Madrid.
