Real Sociedad faces Betis this Sunday in a match that will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the death of Aitor Zabaleta, murdered by Atlético de Madrid ultras. The top royalist leader, Jokin Aperribay, stated on Thursday, during the club’s General Shareholders’ Meeting, that “no guy from Betis who comes to touch the balls is going to enter Anoeta” to attend the match between both teams. La Real announced on Tuesday that he would not sell tickets for the visiting stands to prevent a minority of Betis, as he said happened last season, from giving them to members of the Atlético Front.
Following Aperribay’s words, Betis will convey the harsh words of the royalist president to the Anti-Violence Commission, considering them “inciting violence”, and announced that no representative of the Andalusian club will attend the box at the Reale Arena stadium on Sunday.
“Real Betis Balompié shows its maximum rejection of the statements made this Thursday by the president of Real Sociedad (…) during its general meeting of shareholders. The only desire of the Betis players was to go to the match of the next Sunday to cheer on their team, just as they do in all Spanish and European stadiums,” he said in a statement on Friday afternoon.
The green and white club described Aperribay’s statements as “inappropriate for a position of such responsibility”, considered that “they are very far from the ways in which football operates in our time” and specified that it will send them to the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sports as they are “clearly inciting violence.”
In addition to his words for the Betic fans, the top royalist leader also had words for Aitor Zabaleta: “If I could talk to Aitor I would tell him that we almost won a League in 2003, that we went down, that we won two Cups, that we have returned to Europe …”
The San Sebastian leader also pointed out that “this has nothing to do with Betis, but what happened last year (when members of the Atlético Front entered the stadium with the Betis fans) is the worst thing we can have on the day of the tribute to Aitor Zabaleta “he stressed.