Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal receives racist insults at Bernabeu stadium

The 17-year-old midfielder was targeted during Saturday’s Clasico between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga.

Spanish media reported that 17-year-old Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal, who is of Equatorial Guinean and Moroccan heritage, was targeted with xenophobic and racist abuse at the Bernabeu. Barcelona did not immediately respond to a request for comment by the Reuters news agency.

“Real Madrid strongly condemns any kind of behaviour involving racism, xenophobia or violence in football and sport, and deeply regrets the insults that a few fans uttered last night in one of the corners of the stadium,” Real said in a statement on Sunday.

The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) and LaLiga have taken steps to tackle an increase in racist abuse with measures including partial stadium closures.

Four people were arrested and questioned in Spain on Thursday on suspicion of conducting an online hate campaign encouraging fans to racially abuse Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr in the build-up to their match against Atletico Madrid last month.

In June, the Magistrate’s Court of Valencia issued the first conviction for racist insults in a football stadium in Spain.