Espanyol denounced their fans’ assault on the pitch after a 2-4 loss in the Catalan derby against sworn neighbor Barcelona, who won the Spanish Football League title.
Several Espanyol fans stormed the Power 8 stadium after the end of the match last Sunday night as Barça players were celebrating in the stadium, angering the local team’s fans.
Espanyol said in a statement posted on its official website: “The club regrets the events that took place at the end of the match played at our stadium (Power 8 Stadium).”
He added, “We’re like fans, defeat hurts us, but we don’t accept any form of violence in any way.”
On the other hand, we would like to thank all the fans who supported the team throughout the season despite the results.
And concluded: “As we have always done, Espanyol declares its categorical rejection of any kind of violence in the world of football and will work hard to try to eliminate it, and we confirm our full cooperation to help the police and security forces. whatever they need.”
Barcelona won La Liga tonight and players we are celebrating in central circle… to Espanyol fans broke and chased after them off field ???????????? rice.twitter.com/o9UF6z65Yy
– Football Fights (@footbalIfights) May 14, 2023
In turn, the Espanyol CEO told the media: “We want to apologize to the football world for these events. This is not Espanyol’s true image and does not represent us.”
For its part, the Spanish Football League issued an official statement in which it expressed its position on the events that accompanied the end of the match.
And the association said on its Twitter account: “After the storming of the stadium in the Espanyol-Barcelona match, we analyzed all the photos in cooperation with Espanyol. We will work to identify those responsible for the storming of the stadium in order to prevent them from entering the stadiums. and we will report the information to the competent authorities.”
The Spanish newspaper Marca predicted that the punishment expected to be imposed on Espanyol would not be “severe” and would not go so far as to deprive the team of fans in the remaining matches.
Fortunately for Espanyol, none of the players and administrators of Barcelona were hurt or injured, and none of the referees were subjected to physical violence, which the club is counting on.
Espanyol hopes that the punishment will be limited to a fine of up to 90,000 euros.
Espanyol are aiming to stay in the Spanish league as they are stuck at 31 points, 19th and penultimate in the standings.
Espanyol are 4 points behind Cadiz and Valladolid, who are in 16th and 17th places, which guarantees their owner to stay in La Liga with four rounds to go.
Source: “Media”
