La Liga President Javier Tebas has said they are taking strong steps towards eliminating far-right ultra group ‘Frente Atletico’. The group of fans, which form some of the singing section at the Metropolitano, have been involved in a number of lamentable incidents of late, including racial abuse, the throwing of objects at Thibaut Courtois and fan violence.
The far-right group have already faced a number of arrests and expulsion from Atletico in recent years, but continue to be a problem for Los Colchoneros. Tebas noted that they had been keen to implement facial recognition technology to identify and punish the members of the group committing crimes, but that EU laws did not permit the technology – which has been involved in a number of flawed cases in the United States. Malaga ultras are also being eliminated, claims Tebas.
“With the tools we have we can do more, we have a record book of fanbases and we must be more on top of it, stronger with it. In the legal field, as a league we have presented to the Prosecutor’s Office [a number of cases] and I believe that it is moving forward in good judgment towards the dissolution and illegalisation of the Frente Atletico and we are in the process so that next week the Frente Bokeron Front of Malaga will also be illegalised, because they are groups that not only use violence but engage in hateful behaviour,” he told Relevo.
Curiously, he said that La Liga were making meaningful progress in addressing racism, noting that over the past decade, they had reported over 560 incidents, but questioned whether Barcelona left-back Alejandro Balde had been racially abused. The 21-year-old defender reported the matter at the Coliseum nine days ago, but La Liga have yet to identify the culprits.
“The Balde matter is something that only he heard and we have to see what happened. There are games, (that’s one), that increase the atmosphere microphones so that we can hear more and better everything that happens and we can monitor these issues more.”
Tebas also complained that there was not even treatment depending on who was being abused and for what. He noted that rarely is action taken for the use of the word ‘f*****’, while Singaporean Valencia President Layhoon Chan is often abused with ‘Chinese’ as a derogatory term.
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“The president of Valencia is called Chinese and no one says anything about it being a racist shout. Since she is the president of a club, well, of course, we, the presidents of the clubs, are defenceless against the shouts. There are those from Balde, but there is also the president of Valencia, who constantly has Chinese shouted at her. We try to defend her but they don’t make the same fuss that happens with others.”
Balde spoke about the abuse on Tuesday, noting that while it did not bother him, it surprised the Barcelona man that it came from Getafe. FIFA President Gianni Infantino did condemn the incident at the time, but it appears Tebas needs video evidence ot be convinced. Tebas did note that the fans that abused Lamine Yamal, Balde, Raphinha and Ansu Fati at the Santiago Bernabeu in October had been expelled from Real Madrid, although the players did not press charges against them.
