Paul Kelso and Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Friday November 19, 2004
The Guardian

Tony Blair and the Spanish prime minister yesterday condemned the racist abuse of black England footballers by thousands of Spanish fans as the disgraceful scenes on Wednesday night prompted outrage in Britain and threatened to escalate into a diplomatic row.
Several black England players were taunted with monkey chants and chants by large sections of the crowd at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium during England's 1-0 defeat.

The scale and vehemence of the abuse was condemned by Richard Caborn, the sports minister, but the Spanish authorities failed to acknowledge the taunts until yesterday afternoon, when the office of the prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, described the abuse as intolerable.

"The racist and xenophobic commentaries of this group, which is not representative of Spanish supporters, are intolerable," a spokesman for Mr Zapatero said. "They are unacceptable in sport or any other circumstance."

Mr Blair's office had described the British prime minister as "very disappointed" by events in Madrid. "He believes racism has no part to play in sport - or anywhere else for that matter," a spokesman said.

Last night the Spanish football federation and large parts of the local media had not acknowledged that the abuse occurred, fuelling the belief that a failure to condemn previous racist incidents had contributed to the level and vehemence of the attacks on England players.

The England team arrived in Spain determined to demonstrate against racism after the Spanish coach, Luis Aragones, described the Arsenal striker Thierry Henry as a "black shit".


full article....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1354973,00.html