Spanish FA apologises after Mallorca players’ families harassed in Jeddah
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The president of the Spanish football federation (RFEF) has apologised to Real Mallorca supporters six days after they were harassed at the Super Cup semi-final in Jeddah, with the Balearic government inviting him to reconsider the decision to hold the tournament in Saudi Arabia.
At the end of their 3-0 defeat by Real Madrid last Thursday, players’ families and Mallorca fans who had travelled to the game alleged they were surrounded and subjected to abuse from local fans supporting Real Madrid on their way out of the King Abdullah stadium. Some female supporters are said to have been sexually harassed. The wife of the midfielder Dani Rodríguez, Cristina Palavra, described moments of “genuine panic” and denounced a lack of protection.
“Leaving the stadium was difficult,” Palavra said, once they had been able to board the charter flight back to Spain. “Not only did they hassle and follow us with their mobiles from close up, surrounding us as I had the children in my arms, they also slapped some fans.”.
Natalia Kaluzova, the partner of the goalkeeper Dominik Greif, said: “They came into the group and [were] doing videos of us and pushed us, they groped us, shoved phones into our faces and filmed us.” Sara Noguera, the partner of the midfielder Manu Morlanes, said: “I was with two friends who had their bottoms touched. They were laughing at us, pointing at us, pushing us.”.
