MADRID, Spain | Video circulating from outside Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium has captured individuals chanting an explicit threat against Jews before the club’s Champions League match against Inter Milan, prompting LaLiga president Javier Tebas to say the conduct would be referred to the relevant authorities.
The footage was recorded before Real Madrid’s Sept. 8 match against Inter and circulated widely online the following day.
In one recording, individuals can be heard chanting in Spanish that any Jew they encounter should be struck. Other chants declared Spain to be Christian rather than Muslim. Some footage also showed individuals making Nazi salutes and burning Moroccan flags and images of political figures.
Several Spanish and international reports attributed the incidents to individuals associated with the Ultras Sur, a radical Real Madrid supporter group long excluded from organized support inside the Bernabéu.
There was no indication as of Sept. 10 that arrests had been made or that individual suspects had been publicly identified.
LaLiga Says It Will Report Chants
Although the match was a UEFA Champions League fixture rather than a LaLiga competition, Tebas said Spain’s top professional football organization would still report what occurred.
“We report everything that happens in any competition, and we will take what happened yesterday to the corresponding bodies,” Tebas said when asked about the chants outside the stadium.
LaLiga has repeatedly reported racist, antisemitic, homophobic and other discriminatory conduct surrounding Spanish football matches, even when disciplinary authority ultimately rests with other sporting or government bodies.
No disciplinary ruling connected to the Sept. 8 incident had been announced at the time of publication.
Jewish Community Condemns Threats
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain also condemned the chants.
Its president, David Obadía Chocrón, expressed concern in a letter to Rafael Louzán Abal, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, over slogans directed at Jews and Muslims outside the stadium.
The federation cited the threatening chant targeting Jews and the declaration that Spain was “Christian, not Muslim” as examples of unacceptable conduct.
The incident occurred before Real Madrid defeated Inter 2-1 in the Champions League.
Real Madrid had organized a separate tribute to Ceuta inside the stadium, with supporters displaying the emblem of the Spanish autonomous city before kickoff. The club’s official account of that tribute did not address the antisemitic conduct reported outside the stadium.
The footage outside the Bernabéu is distinct from the official stadium display and should not be treated as representative of Real Madrid supporters generally.
The individuals shown and heard in the videos represent a specific group whose conduct is now being referred to authorities.
The central allegation is nevertheless explicit: the recorded chant did not merely contain a derogatory reference to Jews. It threatened physical violence against Jews encountered by those chanting.
No arrests, criminal charges or formal sporting sanctions had been announced by Sept. 10.
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