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What happened to the Spanish coach at Santiago Bernabeu?
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) threw out one of last season’s most sensitive cases when it dismissed Real Madrid’s appeal against European Football Association (Uefa) sanctions over fans chanting against Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola.
The incident refers to February 19, 2024, when he hosted Santiago Bernabeu Stadium The return match between “Real” and “Manchester City” of the qualifying round of the Champions League final ended with the victory of the Royal Club with a score of 3-1.
During the match, a group of Real Madrid fans chanted hostile slogans at Guardiola, referring to his thin body and linking it to his use of the banned substance nandrolone while playing for Brescia in Italy, in addition to insults linking him to Madrid’s Chueca district, known as a symbol of the LGBT community.
Then, on 28 February 2025, UEFA’s appeals committee decided to fine Real Madrid €30,000, punishing them with the partial closure of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, including at least 500 contiguous seats, for the first European match at home for two years.
Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo confirmed that Real Madrid had appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, arguing that “humorous or exaggerated expressions directed at public figures must be analyzed in their context” and that they do not rise to the level of discrimination.
But UEFA’s defense before CAS stressed that racial discrimination had “cast a long and disturbing shadow over football for decades” and that the sport suffered from “a culture of discrimination, exclusion and bias against people based on their sexual orientation”.
In the substance of the judgment published by Mundo Deportivo newspaper on Wednesday, the court’s judges confirmed that the chanting “is of a seriously discriminatory nature and must be considered far more dangerous and harmful than acceptable sarcasm and jokes”.
The ruling cited expert testimony confirming that associating Guardiola’s name with the Chueca district involved an assumption that he was infected with HIV, an offensive and intentional reference.
In a 38-page report, UEFA’s lawyers criticized Real Madrid’s position, saying the club “should be the first to fight these chants, rather than hire high-profile lawyers to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
“This continued intolerance has affected the personal and professional lives of countless players, coaches and fans and has led to tragic results in the past,” they added.
According to the Associated Press, the CAS decision, handed down this week, means UEFA’s penalty is upheld permanently, with the partial ban suspended for two years starting in February 2025, putting fans under scrutiny for any further violations.
