Loud and obnoxious fans are nothing new in the sports world, but having your team get punished for the words of your fans? That’s a new one. On Tuesday, the Spanish Primera League charged FC Barcelona with a form of “crowd trouble,” after their fans chanted “Cristiano es un borracho!” or “Cristiano Ronaldo is a drunk!” on Sunday during the club’s 5-0 victory over Levante.
Now that the Catalan club has been formally charged, the case will move on to the anti-violence committee where an investigation will be take place. The league reviewed tapes such as the one below, that show over 200 Camp Nou supporters repeatedly chanting “He is a drunk, Cristiano Ronaldo is a drunk!” during the second half of the game.
The chants of Ronaldo being a “drunk” reference the Real Madrid star’s 30th birthday party which took place last week. Numerous photos surfaced on social media and various Spanish news outlets showing the Portuguese striker celebrating with friends and teammates into the wee hours of the morning after his team lost 4-0 to rival Atletico Madrid.
The disciplinary action being taken by the league is part of a country wide effort to clamp down on crowd trouble. La Liga officials believe that chants and other crowd activity could lead to violence like what occurred in Egypt earlier this month and after a Deportivo fan was killed before a match at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon Stadium last November.
52 complaints have been made since the death of the Deportivo fan in November, but only 10 investigations occurred and no disciplinary action has taken place on any of them. One of those complaints came from Barcelona fans who were upset after Real Madrid supporters chanted “Lionel Messi is retarded,” during a match at Bernabeu in December. The issue was resolved when Real Madrid officials announced that they had captured 17 of the fans who were responsible for the chant and escorted them out of the stadium.
After the November incident between Deportivo and Atletico Madrid, La Liga now has officials at every match whose sole purpose is to listen to chants and songs in order to decide if they are over the top and could provoke crowd trouble. It’s yet to be determined what action, if any, will occur to Barcelona, but possible consequences could be a large fine, a suspension, or a closure to parts of the stadium where the chants originated.
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