Spain appeals to CAS after FIFA fine for Islamophobic slogans

Spain appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after being sanctioned by FIFA due to the behavior of fans during a friendly match with Egypt.

The Spanish Football Federation is taking its case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after FIFA rejected an appeal against sanctions imposed due to fans' Islamophobic chants during a match against Egypt in March.

FIFA fined the federation (RFEF) $20,000 and ordered it to close at least 15 percent of the available seats for Spain's next home friendly.

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The end of the sanctions list follows incidents at the RCDE stadium near Barcelona, home of La Liga club Espanyol, in which some Spanish fans chanted, "If you don't jump, you're a Muslim" during a goalless World Cup warm-up match.

After repeating this chant, the stadium announcer issued a warning and the scoreboard displayed a message against discriminatory behavior.

Spanish winger Lamina Yamal, who is Muslim, condemned the chants at the time, describing them as disrespectful and intolerable, calling the officials "ignorant and racist".

Spanish police opened an investigation the next day, while world governing body FIFA later began disciplinary action against the RFEF.

The RFEF argued that the word "Muslim" was "neither insulting nor offensive". The addition of fan behavior should be assessed under FIFA Article 17, which covers political, ideological, religious or offensive messages, not Article 15, which deals with racial discrimination and abuse.

FIFA's Disciplinary Committee rejected this argument, saying that Article 15 does not require the explicit use of an insult and that a term can be discriminatory when it is used in the context of "insulting, insulting or demeaning".

In addition, the measures taken prevented the chants from being repeated and the spectators in the stadium expressed their opposition to such behavior.

The official said the federation considered the sanctions particularly severe, arguing that comparable capacity restrictions were not automatically imposed in more serious cases or those with previous disciplinary offences.

Stating that these slogans were detected by the football federation's surveillance systems and immediately reported to the match authorities, this official said: Security has been strengthened in the damaged part of the stadium.

The federation cooperated fully with the relevant authorities to identify the culprits.