The Madrid Provincial Prosecutor's Office opens proceedings for a hate crime following insults against Catalonia chanted on August 23 at Atlético de Madrid's stadium. The complaint was filed by the entity Acció Cassandra.
The Hate and Discrimination Crimes section of the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor's Office has agreed to initiate criminal investigation proceedings to clarify the offensive chants against Catalonia that were sung at the Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium on August 23. According to mundiario.com, the procedure was formalised through a resolution issued on October 7, following the complaint lodged in early September by the group Acció Cassandra.
The events occurred during the league match between Atlético de Madrid and Villarreal. In the 66th minute, when Argentine forward Julián Álvarez came onto the pitch from the bench, part of the home crowd began to repeatedly chant "puta Barça and puta Cataluña". The player had been the subject of strong interest from FC Barcelona during the summer transfer window.
The complaint, filed by Acció Cassandra, requests that all audiovisual recordings of the official broadcast, images from the stadium's closed-circuit surveillance cameras, and reports prepared by the National Police security coordinators be seized. The association believes these materials are crucial for identifying the fans who led the chants and for verifying the collective volume they reached in different sectors of the venue.
The claimant's document argues that these expressions cannot be justified by sporting fervour nor considered a mere festive outburst. In their view, the expressions meet the required elements to be classified under Article 510.1 of the Penal Code, which punishes those who promote, encourage or incite directly or indirectly hatred, hostility, discrimination or violence against a specific group due to their national origin.
The complaint also invokes Article 22.4 of the Penal Code as an aggravating circumstance. This clause provides for an increase in judicial condemnation when a criminal act is committed for reasons of discrimination related to the national belonging, ideology, religion or ethnic origin of the victims.
"The admission to proceedings is a significant legal first step in ordinary courts," Acció Cassandra stated in a press release.
The platform has highlighted that the specialised prosecutor's office dismissed the provisional filing of the case and chose to initiate procedural actions to investigate what it describes as an episode of animosity towards the Catalan community. The association calls for hostile chants to cease being tolerated or normalised as part of weekend football folklore.
The upcoming proceedings will include taking statements, expert analysis of the ambient sound recorded by the venue's microphones, and reviewing the perimeter cameras located above the ends of the stadium. These actions aim to establish whether there was prior coordination among members of organised support groups to propagate the insults in a synchronised manner.
The process opened in the Madrid courts progresses while Atlético de Madrid remains focused on its sporting calendar. The judicial investigation will continue to determine whether those shouts from August 23 should lead to individual criminal sanctions. For Catalan fans attending First Division stadiums, this case sets a precedent for the scrutiny of such expressions in sports venues.
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