LaLiga, RFEF introduce referee gesture for racist incidents

LaLiga and the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) have agreed to introduce FIFA’s new “No Racism” gesture for referees, which will be used by officials to signal that a racist incident has been reported.

The “cross-arm” gesture was approved at FIFA’s congress in Bangkok in May 2024 and will now be adopted in Spain, the two governing bodies said on Thursday.

Racism in Spanish football has come under the spotlight with a number of high-profile incidents of fans insulting players, many involving the Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior, who has led calls for more action on the issue.

Earlier this year, three fans received prison sentences for racially abusing the Brazil international at Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium in May 2023, in the first guilty verdict of its kind in Spain.

In May, FIFA announced the introduction of a “global standard gesture” for referees “to signal the implementation of the three-step procedure to halt, suspend and ultimately abandon matches” in the event of a racist incident.

LaLiga and the RFEF said on Thursday that the “cross-arm” gesture would now be incorporated into their existing anti-racism protocols.

If a referee sees or is made aware of a racist incident, the gesture will be used, the game will be paused and an announcement made over the stadium public address system warning that a match suspension will follow if the behaviour is repeated.

The second step sees the official suspend the game temporarily, with the teams being sent to the dressing rooms, while step three involves the game being suspended definitively, after consultation with security and club officials.

Vinícius said in a CNN interview last month that Real Madrid would be prepared to walk off the pitch if faced with more racist abuse.

The player has repeatedly been targeted by opposition fans, and after the Mestalla incident he criticised the league’s failure to tackle the problem, saying “racism is normal in LaLiga.”

The league and its president Javier Tebas have denied that claim, and called on the Spanish government to grant them new powers to be able to penalise racist offenders directly.

In the same interview, Vinícius said that Spain should lose the right to host the 2030 World Cup if more progress isn’t made on the issue.

“If by 2030 things don’t improve, I think we have to move the location, because if a player doesn’t feel comfortable and safe playing in a country where they can suffer racism, it’s a bit difficult,” he said.

“There are a lot of people in Spain, the majority, that aren’t racist. It’s a small group that ends up affecting the image of a country … We hope things can evolve more.”