"When you want to go, you go"

This was the response of Real Zaragoza's captain, Luis Carlos Cuartero, to Samuel Eto'o's attempts to leave the pitch after being subjected to racists taunts by Zaragoza fans on Saturday.

El País reports that

As soccer players from around the world asked for concerted action against abuse directed at black players by racist spectators, Real Zaragoza captain Luis Carlos Cuartero criticized on Wednesday the decision to fine his club after Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o was jeered last weekend. Soccer’s disciplinary committee announced late on Tuesday evening that it would be fining Real Zaragoza €9,000 for last Saturday’s incidents, which led to Eto’o threatening to leave the field of play in the La Romareda stadium after having so-called “monkey chants” directed at him. “Over the top,” was Cuartero’s view of the fine.

As other reporters have noted, Saturday's events are hardly a rare occurance in Zaragoza. While such vicious and open racism does occur at many grounds accross Spain, Zaragoza is renowned as one of the worst. Last year, club supporters threw bananas at Eto'o.

Nick wrote to the Observer Sports Monthly last year to comment on what he felt was an imbalanced view of Spanish racism in the British press. I disagree with him on this issue because I do believe that there is much more open, institutional and socially acceptable racism here. Don't get me wrong: it's nowhere near as bad as Australia (my cousin has had 'Paki' shouted at her from passing cars on some of the smartest streets in Canberra), but racism is a bigger problem in Spain than it is in the UK.

Eto'o himself has recommended much tougher penalties (closing the Zaragoza stadium for a year), which some will claim are way over the top. But until people learn that if you shout racist abuse at people, you will be severely punished for it, then it will carry on.

Real Zaragoza, their management, players and now captain clearly don't care. As far as they're concerned, Eto'o should take it like a man or leave. I say close the stadium. Keep them out of Europe for two years (not sure if that will really affect them much), ban their fans from games and force them to play behind closed doors, with no revenue, until they can control the racist scum who support them (many reports stated that much of the stadium took part in the chanting). And if la Liga isn't willing to enforce the rules, then they should be fined. 'A little bit of racism' is never acceptable, and some thugs clearly need this hammered into them.