Homophobic Chants Directed Against Ronaldo By Barcelona Fans – Does The Clasico Rivalry Justify This Behaviour?

A section of the Barcelona fans directed homophobic slurs against Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo at the Camp Nou in Saturday’s El Clasico. Fans behind the goal were heard shouting ‘Cristiano come out of the closet’ but were largely drowned out by the 98,000-strong crowd present in the stadium.

The match finished 1-1 after Luis Suarez had given Barcelona the lead, only for Madrid captain Sergio Ramos to equalise in the dying moments of the game.

La Liga President Javier Tebas is keen to take a serious action following the incident. Tebas and his team have been fighting the battle to erase out any form of homophobia from the sport and will most likely take some disciplinary actions against Barcelona.

The homophobic chants directed towards the Portuguese wasn’t the first occurrence of the incident as Ronaldo was subjected to similar slurs at the Vicente Calderon a fortnight ago when Atletico Madrid were handed a 3-0 defeat by the Galacticos, with Cristiano scoring a hat-trick on the night.

According to some reports in the Spanish media, he was also verbally abused by Atletico and Spain midfielder Koke in the same match.

It is no hidden fact that the rivalry between the two giants of European football is very bitter and highly intense. Always at loggerheads with each other, there have been many controversies in the past between Madrid and Barca.

In fact, Ronaldo had been at the receiving end of these anti-gay chants last season as well when Madrid visited Camp Nou on the 6^th of April.

Yes, the rivalry is sure to generate a lot of passion among the fans too, no question. Sometimes the crowds get so caught up in the heat of the game that they might not even realise what they’re shouting.

But that is still no excuse for such unacceptable behaviour in a football stadium. Such blatant disregard of a person’s or a community’s feelings and values should not be a part of this sport. Football is no place to breed such toxicity and ostentatious behaviour.

Earlier this year, FIFA, world football’s governing body, began handing fines to football associations where such incidents happened. Last week, every Premier League football team displayed a giant rainbow flag at the start of the games in a show of support for gay fans and players. There are a lot of efforts being put to erase these intolerant and unpleasant facets from the game, but unfortunately, scenes like the one on Saturday at the Camp Nou leave a bad taste.

When everyone involved in the game are standing up against the evil of homophobia and trying their best to root out the weed from the game, the fans need to step up too. Only when everybody stands up together, will it be possible to completely root out this evil? This is, by no means, an easy battle. There is still plenty of work to be done, a long long way to go, but football is moving in the right direction and as fans of this beautiful sport, we should too.