The Public Prosecutor’s Office has filed a complaint for the racist shouts that Athletic footballer Nico Williams was subjected to last April during a match against Atlético on the Madrid team’s pitch. The Public Prosecutor’s Office understands that the shouts from the stands of the Metropolitano when the player was taking the throw-in in the 36th minute of the match, imitating the song of a monkey, constitute a possible crime against dignity because they were committed “with obvious disregard” for the black color of the player’s skin.
The complaint, the prosecutor’s office explains in a statement, explains that this sound is the one used on football fields as a racist attitude towards black players. “It has been uttered on several occasions by groups of supporters from different countries to publicly offend athletes because of the color of their skin.”
Several racist chants against footballers have been brought to court by the prosecution. Recently, several fans accepted eight-month prison sentences for making these types of insults against Vinícius, a Real Madrid player, during a match at Mestalla in May 2023. In this case, the sentence was handed down after an agreement and the convicts wrote a letter of apology.
In the case of Nico Williams, one of the most important players in the Spanish team’s victory in the last European Cup, the prosecution reports that in the 36th minute of the first half of the match, these chants could be heard from the Metropolitano. stands. “I heard monkey noises, there were few, there are stupid people everywhere and nothing happens. I hope it will happen little by little, in the end we are fighting against it internally and externally and that’s what it is,” the player said after the match.
It will now be up to the capital’s courts to decide whether to open a criminal investigation into the shouting, which in similar cases has led to trials and convictions such as the one that affected Vinícius Júnior. In that case, the agreement included a ban on those convicted from entering football stadiums for two years. The club also banned one of the fans for life.
