Villarreal fined for Alves 'banana' incident

Madrid, May 8 (IANS) Spanish Primera Liga football club Villarreal have been fined 12,000 Euros ($16,700) by the Disciplinary Committee of the Spanish Football Association (RFEF) for the racist incident in their El Madrigal Stadium April 27 which saw a fan throw a banana at Barcelona defender Dani Alves.

The club, which has no previous history of racism among its supporters, had faced the possibility of seeing its stadium closed in the wake of an incident in a game between Villarreal and Celta earlier the season, reports Xinhua.

That game had to be suspended for 20 minutes and fans were evacuated after a tear gas canister was thrown on the pitch. The person behind the incident has yet to be found and Villarreal were fined 6,000 Euros and advised about future behavior.

The RFEF Wednesday considered the two events were "of a different nature", but it will have helped that the club acted quickly in the wake of the Alves incident by identifying the person who threw the banana (a 26-year-old season club member), banning them for life and passing their details on to the police.

Alves' reaction to the incident has become almost iconic among anti-racism campaigners after the defender picked up the banana thrown at him, peeled it and took a bite out of it before continuing with the game.

Many fans and players have since shown their support for him and their rejection of racism by posting photos of themselves eating a banana on social networking sites.

However, racist insults aimed at Levante midfielder Papa Diop by a group of Atletico Madrid supporters on Sunday has shown that despite progress in the area, racism is still a problem with some small groups of Spanish football supporters.