Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone says fans who hurled objects onto the pitch, causing their Spanish football league match against Real Madrid to be suspended for more than 20 minutes, should be punished along with the players who he suggested encourage such action.
The city derby was interrupted on Sunday after Atletico fans threw objects onto the field, prompting the referee to stop the game and send the players to the dressing rooms around the 70th minute at the Metropolitano Stadium.
While Real players celebrated Eder Militao’s opener in the 64th minute, Atletico ultras Fondo Sur, who are located in the south lower stands, threw objects towards visiting keeper Thibaut Courtois, who alerted the referee, leading to the decision to halt the match.
After the delay, Angel Correa equalised deep in added time as the game ended with a 1-1 draw.
“My opinion is that people who have committed incidents should be sanctioned by the club. We don’t need these people. We need the people who accompany and support us. They harm the club, but be careful: that does not justify generating situations that we, the protagonists, generate,” Simeone told DAZN Sport.
Atletico defender Jose Maria Gimenez and midfielder Koke Resurreccion went to talk to the fans in the section behind Courtois’s goal.
Simeone also asked several times for the fans to behave.
“We all have to help,” he said.
“The people who have thrown those lighters, it’s not right. But maybe it doesn’t help when us, the protagonists, undermine people, charge against people, provoke people and then people get angry.
“People have no other way of doing it, in a bad way, which is not right, but we also have to try to be calm, to understand the situations, that you can celebrate a goal by celebrating it, but not by celebrating it by staring at the stands, charging against the stands, making gestures … because then people get angry.
“Of course it’s not justified, but neither is the initial thing justified because otherwise, we’ll always be victims. The one who throws the cigarette lighter should be sanctioned and the one who provokes should also be sanctioned. This way there is no more laughter and things like that, as you are not sanctioned, you are allowed to do things.”
