La Liga have announced that they will take action against Espanyol fans who invaded the pitch on Sunday night, in order to go after celebrating Barcelona players.
The Blaugrana were celebrating their title victory in the centre circle when they were forced to sprint to the tunnel and safety amid fears for their safety. Even so, it was an incident that inflamed captain Sergio Busquets, who did not go quietly.
On Monday morning, La Liga announced that they had looked at the footage, and would be enforcing stadium bans on the fans they identified – they will do so with the help of Espanyol, who have condemned the incidents.
🇬🇧𝐄𝐍| LaLiga, after the pitch invasion at #EspanyolBarça:
– Has analysed all images since yesterday
– In collaboration with @RCDEspanyol will identify all those responsible in order to prevent them from returning to stadiums
– Report the incident to the appropriate authorities— LaLiga Corporativo (@LaLigaCorp) May 15, 2023
They will also report the incident to the relevant authorities, which in this case is likely to be the Ministry for Sport. It could well result in a stadium ban for Espanyol, although that would be a departure from recent patterns. When dealing with incidents of racism, the approach has very much focused on handing out individual punishments rather than sanctioning clubs as a whole.
La Liga have announced they will take action against Espanyol fans who stormed the pitch last night.
Fans who are identified will be banned from football grounds. This guy won't be back for a while.#Espanyol #Barca pic.twitter.com/UWhCVxFZq8
— Football España (@footballespana_) May 15, 2023