The Atletico Madrid match against Athletic Bilbao witnessed an unfortunate racist incident, against the star Neco Williams, a player for the Basque team, during the first half of the match that brought together the two teams on Saturday evening, causing the protocol to be activated.
The referee stopped the match at the end of the first half, after a number of Atletico Madrid fans in the stands of the “Wanda Metropolitano” stadium imitated the sound of monkeys while Neco Williams was taking a corner kick, and one of those present directed the word “monkey” to the player.
The protocol was activated through the public address system, in addition to the intervention of Koke and Antoine Griezmann, the Atletico Madrid duo, and they asked the fans present to stop racist insults towards the Athletic Bilbao player.
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A few minutes after the racist incident, Neco Williams succeeded in scoring the equalizer for Athletic Bilbao, celebrating and highlighting the color of his dark skin through his celebration, in response to the insults he was exposed to.
Williams said after the match: “I went to take a corner kick, and I heard monkey noises, as a small number of fans did that. There are stupid people everywhere, and I hope this changes little by little. I celebrated this way because it is not normal to be insulted because of a color.” “Your skin.”
Via DAZN channels, Atletico Madrid player Koke said: “If something happens to Nico, send him a lot of encouragement. Racist people should have no place in our society.”
Inaki Williams, Nico’s brother, also commented, saying: “I knew that if my brother did that, it meant that something had happened. They imitated monkey sounds. This is unacceptable and we should not see it in football. The referee intervened well, and when my brother was getting the “Everyone is booing him in football. I don’t know why you would whistle at someone who was insulted and not a racist.”
Iñaki continued: “Football is a sport for children and we grew up playing it. There are many positive things and we must set an example and this matter ends now, and this scourge must be put to an end.”
