Spain is not racist country — Real Madrid coach reacts to Islamophobic chants which affected Lamine Yamal

Real Madrid head coach Álvaro Arbeloa has rejected mounting international accusations that Spain is a racist country, stepping up to defend his nation following the disgraceful Islamophobic abuse directed at Egypt during an international friendly between La Roja and the Pharaohs at the RCDE stadium. 

Arbeloa made the comments in the press conference ahead of Real Madrid's return to LALIGA action against Celta Vigo on Saturday, April 4.

He insisted that the vile actions of a minority do not represent Spanish society. “I believe Spain is not a racist country. If it were, we’d have problems every weekend,” he said, per Football Espana.

“We need to eradicate certain behaviours, things I can’t change. But I will continue to defend this. Spain must keep fighting to eradicate these kinds of attitudes, but we are a great, very tolerant country. We shouldn’t generalise, but we must continue with the same fight and strength.”

His defence follows the disgraceful incident on Tuesday, when a section of far-right spectators repeatedly chanted, "Who doesn’t jump is a Muslim."

In protest, Barcelona star and Muslim Lamine Yamal refused to participate in a farewell lap after the 0-0 draw against the North Africans. Yamal walked straight down the tunnel in protest. He also released a statement decrying the incident.

The Islamophobic chants during the friendly have reignited global scrutiny over Spanish football's deeply entrenched, systemic issues with racism. 

The abuse aimed at the Egyptian contingent is just the latest in a relentless string of overt stadium racism, most notably echoing the horrific, repeated racial abuse suffered by Real Madrid winger Vinícius Júnior over recent seasons, which forced LALIGA to implement stadium closures and led to several high-profile arrests. 

In the immediate aftermath of the RCDE incident, the Catalan regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, officially launched a criminal hate crime investigation utilising stadium CCTV to identify the perpetrators. 

Furthermore, Spain's Justice Minister Félix Bolaños publicly condemned the hostile crowd, labelling the chants a "complete embarrassment to our society," as the nation desperately attempts to eradicate stadium bigotry ahead of co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup.