'Embarrassed' Spain probes anti-Muslim chants at Egypt friendly

MADRID: Spanish police said on Wednesday that they were investigating "Islamophobic and xenophobic" chants that were heard during the Spain-Egypt international football match in Barcelona, which the government said "embarrass us as a society".

Egypt's national anthem was also jeered ahead of the 0-0 draw on Tuesday in a pre-World Cup friendly, while authorities at La Liga side Espanyol's RCDE Stadium appealed to fans more than once over the public announcement system to refrain from making offensive comments.

It was the latest in a string of similar incidents to overshadow Spanish football in recent years, with Real Madrid's Brazilian attacker Vinicius Junior in particular repeatedly racially abused.

"We are investigating yesterday's Islamophobic and xenophobic chants at RCDE Stadium during the Spain-Egypt friendly match," Catalonia's regional police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, wrote on X.

A section of supporters had chanted: "Whoever doesn't jump is Muslim."

One of Spain's starting players during Tuesday's match, forward Lamine Yamal who plays for Espanyol's city rivals Barcelona and is Muslim, slammed the chants as "a lack of respect and something intolerable".

"To those who sing these things: using a religion as a form of mockery on a pitch shows you up as ignorant and racist," he wrote on Instagram.

Justice Minister Felix Bolanos condemned the incident, saying that "racist insults and chants embarrass us as a society".

"The far right will not leave any space free from their hatred, and those who remain silent today will be complicit," he added on X.

The Spanish Football Federation also condemned the incident, as did most major political parties.

But the leader of the far-right Vox party, Santiago Abascal, reposted a photo