The Atletico Madrid has received an emotional blow this Monday to their aspirations of overcoming their tie against Manchester City on Wednesday and advancing to the Champions League semi-finals. UEFA has made the decision to partially close the Wanda Metropolitano as punishment for the nazi salutes of ultras Atletico in the first leg, played a week ago at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester.
During the match played last Tuesday, and resolved with a 1-0 victory for Pep Guardiola’s team, several Atlético fans were caught making fascist gestures, in addition to throwing objects onto the pitch. UEFA, based on its rules, holds clubs responsible for inappropriate or punishable behavior by their fans.
5,000 seats
Consequently, the UEFA Appeals Body has announced the partial closure of the Wanda Metropolitano, which is specified in that 5,000 of the almost 70,000 seats available in the Madrid stadium will have to remain empty in the decisive meeting this Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. The sanction only covers this match.
Last Friday, UEFA already announced the opening of a disciplinary file against Atlético for “discriminatory behaviors” and “object throwing” of an undetermined number of the around 3,000 fans who traveled from Spain to attend the match on site.
A procedure that has been resolved this Monday, a little more than 48 hours for the dispute of the affected meeting. Additionally, Atlético will have to deploy a banner reading “#NoToRacism”with the UEFA logo on it.
The sanction is a tremendous headache for Atlético. At the time of writing this information, according to the club’s website only thirty tickets were on saleso the club will have to manage how it leaves close to 5,000 people who already have a ticket without being able to access to the stadium.
It must also be taken into account that the UEFA regulations for international competitions require that the 5% of tickets go to visiting fans. In the case of the Wanda, this implies that around 3,500 seats they will be occupied by City fans. And, obviously, they cannot be those affected by the sanction announced by the body chaired by Aleksandr Ceferin.
Discontent
Atlético, as reported by various media, described as “disproportionate” penalty imposed by UEFA and consider that its execution is unfeasible with such a slim margin of time.
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The club, however, is a repeat offender. Just a month ago, UEFA already punished Atlético for the racist insults received by the Real Madrid player Peter, during the derby of the UEFA Youth Youth League, corresponding to the round of 16 and played in Valdebebas.
The sanction was harsher than this, as Atlético’s youth team will have to play their next home game behind closed doors. Given that his quarterfinal match was played away to Dortmund and the Final Four is played in Nyon, the penalty will be carried out next season. In addition, the mattress club was sanctioned with a fine of 30,000 euros.