A storm over fut coins racism in Spanish football erupted

A storm over fut coins racism in Spanish football erupted on Monday after a fan threw a banana at Barcelona full-back Dani Alves, with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and FIFA president Sepp Blatter joining widespread outrage.

A spectator threw the banana onto the pitch near the 30-year-old Brazilian international as Barcelona played at Villareal on Sunday night.

Alves won praise for his reaction, picking up the banana to take a bite before getting on with the game and setting up a goal in Barcelona’s dramatic come-from-behind 3-2 victory.

It was the latest in a long series of racist taunts in the Spanish game and one of many suffered personally by Alves during more than a decade with Sevilla and then Barcelona.

“Dani Alves gave a daring and strong response to racism in sports,” Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff said in a series of Twitter messages. Such racism had become “unfortunately common,” she added.

Blatter also reacted on Twitter on Monday, saying: “What @DaniAlves2 tolerated last night is an outrage. We must fight all forms of discrimination united. Will be zero tolerance at #World Cup.”

Referee David Fernandez Borbalan noted the banana-throwing incident in his match report, which will be reviewed www.eafutcoins.co.uk by the competition committee of Spain’s football federation on Tuesday and could lead to a sanction.