Barcelona
(AFP) - A storm over racism in Spanish football erupted on Monday after a fan
threw a banana at Barcelona full-back Dani Alves, with Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff and FIFA president Sepp Blatter joining widespread outrage.
A spectator
-- who has since been identified -- threw the banana onto the pitch near the
30-year-old Brazilian international as Barcelona played at Villareal on Sunday
night.
Alves won
praise for his reaction, picking up the banana to take a bite before getting on
with the game and setting up a goal in Barcelona's dramatic come-from-behind
3-2 victory.
There have
been several racist incidents in Spain -- Alves has personally suffered several
during more than a decade, first with Sevilla then Barcelona.
"The
player Dani Alves gave a daring and strong response to racism in sports,"
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff said in a series of Twitter messages. Such
racism had become "unfortunately common," she added.
Blatter
also reacted on Twitter on Monday, saying: "What @DaniAlves2 tolerated
last night is an outrage. We must fight all forms of discrimination united.
Will be zero tolerance at #World Cup."
Referee
David Fernandez Borbalan noted the banana-throwing incident in his match
report, which Spain's football authorities will review on Tuesday pending
possible sanctions.
Barcelona
issued a strong message of support for Alves, who is likely to be a key player
for World Cup hosts Brazil in June.
"FC
Barcelona wishes to express its complete support and solidarity with our first
team player Dani Alves, following the insults he was subject to from a section
of the crowd at El Madrigal on Sunday during the game against Villarreal,"
said the club in a statement.
Villarreal take action
Villarreal
themselves released a statement expressing their "absolute rejection of
any act" of "violence, discrimination, racism and xenophobia."
"Villarreal
CF wants to communicate that the club deeply regrets and condemns the incident
that happened...during the match against FC Barcelona in which a fan threw an
object onto the field of El Madrigal," they added.
"The
club has already identified the author and has decided to withdraw his season
tickets, permanently banning his access to El Madrigal."
After
Sunday's game, Alves said: "I have been in Spain 11 years and it has been
the same for 11 years. You have to laugh at these backward people.
"We
are not going to change it, so you have to take it almost as a joke and laugh
at them."
Team-mates
and fans lent public support, including compatriot and clubmate Neymar, who
posted a photograph of himself on the Instagram social networking site showing
him eating a banana and his two-year-old son hugging a cuddly banana toy.
"We
are all monkeys, we are all the same. Say no to Racism! It's disgraceful that
such shameful prejudice exists in 2014," Neymar said.
Chelsea's
Brazilian stars Oscar, David Luiz and Willian also posted to social media, with
Luiz holding a banana, while Manchester City's Argentinian star Sergio Aguero
tweeted a picture of himself and Brazilian five-time world player of the year
Marta both eating one.
"With
my colleague Marta from Brazil we say #NoToRacism. We are all equal," said
Aguero.
Former
England international and former Barcelona star Gary Lineker tweeted after the
match: "Utterly brilliant reaction from Alves. Treat the racist berk with
complete disdain!"
Football's
world and European governing bodies FIFA and UEFA have repeatedly tried to
campaign against racism and last November, Blatter said he was
"sickened" to see some Real Betis supporters make monkey chants at
their own player, Brazilian defender Paulao, in a city derby against Sevilla.
Earlier in
the season, two Elche fans were fined 4,000 euros ($5,400) and banned from
attending sporting events for 12 months for racially abusing Granada defender
Allan Romeo Nyom.
Incidents
have also stained top level games in Italy, Russia and other European nations.
Ghana
international Kevin-Prince Boateng walked off the pitch over racial insults
made during a friendly between his then club AC Milan and a lower-league
Italian side in January last year.
UEFA in
February punished the Serbian federation, Russian club CSKA Moscow and Cypriot
side Apollon Limassol for racist behaviour by fans.
Serbia's
under-21 team were ordered to play a match without home fans after their
supporters made monkey chants during a game against Belgium on November 15.
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Barcelona star Alves enjoys flurry of support after banana jibe
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