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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Bilbao seal Champions League spot with win

Athletic Bilbao ensured they will be Spain's fourth representative in the Champions League next season with a 3-0 win over Rayo Vallecano on Friday.

Published: 3 May 2014 11:00 CEST
Bilbao seal Champions League spot with win
Athletic Bilbao's players and supporters celebrate the club's return to the Champions League after beating Rayo Vallecano. AFP Photo/Dani Pozo

First-half goals from Mikel San Jose and Oscar de Marcos put the Basques in control before Ander Herrera added a third 16 minutes from time.

Victory moves Athletic nine points clear of Europa League finalists Sevilla with three games to play, but their superior head-to-head record over the Andalusians means they now cannot be caught.

However, Ernesto Valverde's men will have one qualifying round to go through in August if they are to make it into the group stages.
 

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FOOTBALL

‘Something no black player wants’: Bilbao striker suffers racist abuse

Athletic Bilbao striker Inaki Williams said he was the victim of racist abuse on Saturday during his team's 1-1 draw away to Espanyol in La Liga.

Published: 26 January 2020 09:53 CET
'Something no black player wants': Bilbao striker suffers racist abuse
Bilbao striker Inaki Williams celebrates during Saturdays game against Espagnol. Photo: Cesar Manso/AFP
“I'm a little sad because of the draw but especially because I have suffered racist insults,” Williams told the official club website after the game. “It's something that no black player or player of any race wants to hear. It's something totally out of place.”
   
“People have to come to the stadium to enjoy the game, to cheer on their team, to enjoy football. It's a game of friendship, of the team,” added the forward. “The truth is that it has been a sad day because of what I am telling you,
because these events that are totally out of place do not have to happen.”
 
Inaki wrote later on social media: “It is very sad that today we continue to experience racism in football. We have to end it. Thank you for your support. #Nomocracies #Semiostracism.”
 
   
Athletic Bilbao offered their backing for the 25-year-old. “All our support to @Williaaams45,” the club wrote in a message on Twitter. “Before anything, zero tolerance for racism.”
 
La Liga and the Spanish Football Federation are yet to comment but La Liga president Javier Tebas said it had been a dark day for the sport after violence also broke out between fans of Barcelona and Valencia before their fixture at Mestalla.
   
“Today we have taken a step back in the work that we started years ago,” Tebas wrote on Twitter. “The violent incidents between fans of Barcelona and Valencia, the racist insults made at Inaki Williams — these things are doing a lot of damage to Spanish football. “La Liga takes responsibility. We will look at the clubs where there has been wrongdoing.”
   
Referee Jose Sanchez made no mention of racism in his official report of the match between Espanyol and Bilbao.
   
The game also continued, unlike in December, when a Spanish second division fixture between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete was suspended with the agreement of the two clubs and La Liga.
   
Some Rayo supporters had chanted “Zozulya is a Nazi” in the first half against Albacete's Ukrainian striker Roman Zozulya, who had previously played for Rayo.
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