Atletico Madrid boosting their Champions League prospects at the expense of Athletic Bilbao was marred by claims of racism towards Nico Williams on Saturday evening.
The contest, which Atleti won 3-1 to go six points clear of fifth-placed Bilbao, was briefly halted after Williams drew attention to alleged racist sounds coming from the Estadio Civitas Metropolitano crowd.
Rodrigo Paul had put Atletico ahead after a quarter of an hour, but Williams equalised on the stroke of half-time at the same end where the alleged abuse occurred and he celebrated by pointing to his arm.
During half-time, Atletico said on X they are “against any act of racism or hatred” before Angel Correa and Unai Simon’s own goal made sure of victory for the hosts.
A LaLiga statement said: “There’s no place for racist or hateful behaviour in sport.
“LaLiga vehemently condemns any racist acts and will continue working to eradicate this inexcusable behaviour from our sport.”
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here