The Appeal Committee has upheld the appeal presented by Atlético in which it requested the annulment of the partial closure of the Metropolitano for two games. In addition, the mattress team will not receive the 20,000 euro fine imposed by the Disciplinary Committee on April 30, for racist insults to Nico Williams.
During the match between Atlético and Athletic Club, a red and white fan shouted racist insults at the Spanish international. Martínez Munuera, referee of the match, included the events in the minutes: “A sound imitating a monkey ‘uh’, ‘uh’ was heard from the south end of the stand, being heard by the assistant referee at the same time as the number 11, Nico Williams. At that moment the anti-racism protocol was activated.”
Atlético, in its appeal, argued its lack of responsibility in the incident, after having adopted all the required prevention measures and the fact that the person responsible for the chant was located by the stadium cameras, monitored from the UCO, who was identified and proposed for sanction by the National Police at the end of the match.
The Appeals Committee, which also withdrew the sanction against Getafe for the racist chants against Sevilla’s Acuña, has made the decision to annul the punishment against the Colchonero team this Thursday because “the club has actively collaborated in identifying the person responsible for the incident.”
Likewise, Appeal has also revoked the sanction because the insults were uttered by a single subject, who has already been suspended by the club: “The fact that it was an isolated incident, carried out by a single subject, as has been proven and not by a undetermined collective, allows us to affirm that the maximum possible diligence is taken by the Club, so the attribution of responsibility to it could only derive from an objective responsibility that is not the one provided for by regulations and is not admissible in the sanctioning area.
“In short, this Committee considers that the Club has deployed measures that demonstrate behavior of the greatest possible diligence, without being able to appreciate the existence of other measures that could have been adopted to avoid such events (preventive measures) or mitigate their severity ( reactive measures). Consequently, this Committee concludes that the Club acted with the greatest possible diligence, upholding the appeal, revoking the contested agreement and annulling the financial penalty of €20,000 and the partial closure of the sports venue for two matches,” concludes the letter from Appeal.
