THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MADRID, Spain — Sporting Gijon was fined for its fans’ racist taunting of Getafe’s Ecuador forward Joffre Guerron in their Spanish league game last weekend.
The Spanish Football Federation did not disclose the amount of the financial penalty on Tuesday, but in similar previous cases the sums have been modest.
Gijon said it hopes to avoid further outbreaks of racism at its matches.
Some fans made monkey noises at Guerron at the start of the second half at Gijon’s El Molinon Stadium. Newly promoted Gijon, which lost to Getafe 2-1, was playing its first game in a decade in the top flight.
Referee Alfonso Perez Burrull briefly halted Sunday’s game to ask club officials to take action. Gijon then made a loudspeaker announcement and the taunting stopped.
"We want to continue to be very radical on these things and Sporting will always act on any type of racist incident," Gijon president Manuel Vega Arango was quoted as saying by sports daily Marca on Tuesday. "You can’t have a police officer for every supporter but you have to try your utmost that it doesn’t happen again."
With Madrid bidding for the 2016 Olympic Games, authorities have tried to improve Spain’s image by cracking down on racist incidents which have affected some sporting events over recent years.
In 2004, spectators directed monkey chants at black England players during an international football friendly against Spain at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid. Many believe those actions hurt the city’s bid for the 2012 Olympics.
Spanish league football games have sometimes been marred by spectators’ racist taunting, while British driver Lewis Hamilton endured the same treatment during Formula One testing in Barcelona in February.