Referee reveals racism appeal
A referee has revealed racist chants brought a halt to a Spanish league game.
Spanish referee Alfonso Perez Burrull has confirmed he brought last weekend's game between Malaga and Espanyol to a halt to try and combat racist chanting from home fans.Malaga supporters were taunting Espanyol's Cameroonian goalkeeper Carlos Kameni with monkey chants, and Perez Burrull decided to intervene.
He revealed in his match report that he stopped play in order to instruct Malaga officials to make an announcement asking fans to stop the abuse.
"The first time the Espanyol goalkeeper intervened you could hear monkey noises coming from behind the goal so I asked for the game to be stopped to ask the Malaga delegate to make an announcement on the loudspeakers," Perez Burrull stated in his match report.
"I asked them to repeat the announcement at half time in order to remind spectators to refrain from racist behaviour."
Perez Burrull also actually approached Kameni to see if he was happy to keep playing in the face of the abuse he was receiving from the terraces.
The official has been one of the most pro-active in trying to deal with the problem of racist chanting in Spain.
Earlier in the season he reported similar incidents in the Madrid derby and in a game between Albacete and Barcelona.
Spain's sports minister Jaime Lissavetzky has revealed he will hold a meeting with Spanish football's top brass to try and find a solution to the problem which has gained more and more publicity in recent weeks.
Lissavetzky will meet RFEF (Spanish FA) president Angel Maria Villar, LFP (Football League) president Jose Luis Astiazaran and the head of the players' association Gerardo Gonzalez to discuss measures which could be introduced to combat racist abuse at Spanish grounds.
