A 0-0 draw between Llagostera and Racing Santandar in the first leg of a promotion play-off in the Segunda División was marred by a disgusting gesture by a woman in the Llagostera crowd.
The woman, employed by FC Barcelona at their museum, was seen making the 'monkey' gesture at Racing striker Mamadou Kone. He was led away by one of his teammates.
Llagostera say they subsequently identified the woman and their club president Isabel Tarrago passed her information onto Spanish police. When Barcelona heard, they acted swiftly and banned her for life from the Camp Nou.
After the game, Kone took to Twitter and tweeted: ‘With regards to this "lady", better to say nothing. She has already shown herself.’
Racism in Spain has reared its ugly head again, soon after Dani Alves had a banana thrown at him by a Villarreal supporter in April. This led to a worldwide campaign by footballers, all showing their support for Alves by taking pictures of themselves eating the fruit.
Police in Spain say racist incidents are far from being isolated, but with increasing media exposure and public outcry towards these events will hopefully deter any future attacks. However, the need for harsher punishment is clear. The authorities need to clamp down hard on these offenders. The man in Alves' case had his season ticket revoked and handed a lifetime ban. Since it clearly did nothing to deter some supporters, perhaps a jail sentence would be more appropriate.