Made the right decision, maybe, but why so late in the day, after Liverpool fans had already made their travel/hotel arrangements? Why did it take so long?

It's a pretty scary place to go as an away fan.

One difference between the Calderon and montjuic incidents is That if the police had waded in,the situation would have been under contol in a second.

The spanish/catalan Police pick their fights very carefully and love wading in to Foreign away teams or home teams if you support Espanyol.

I agree with you Tim, the sooner Spanish clubs wake up to the fact that UEFA/FIFA take no notice of the Pathetic whining Spanish clubs use to justify Racism/Crowd trouble the better. I personally think the Super soft line used by the Spanish federation is also to blame too.

A two match ban is fair and if it happens again,Maybe they should be kicked out of the competition.

Let's hope Barça draw a team that Luis Figo Plays for.

Paul, I lived in Hospitalet de Llogregat for a couple of years and while I was never really up on Espanyol supporters at the time, I did come across some fairly nasty right-wing characters wearing the colours.

So my question is: how much of the Espanyol fanbase is like this? Just a question, no axes to grind!

while Atlético are responsible for their stewards, they can't be held responsible for the action that the National police force took.

why not just make the ban start after the Liverpool match?

thats all

Cabbage: Having lived in Barcelona and been to Montjuic a couple of times I have to say that very few Espanyol fans are of the type you describe. The far right nutters and hardcore Spanish nationalists of the "Brigadas Blanquiazules" are very much in the minority compared with the non-violent but very passionate "Curva Jove" at the opposite end of the ground.

I know plenty of Espanyol fans who are very patriotic Catalans and the old stereotype of Espanyol being the club of ostracised Spaniards within the city of Barcelona no longer stands up, if ever it was true. One of my periko friends is worried that with the new stadium there will be an increase in the numbers of Brigadas as at the old Sarria ground there were considerably more, but that remains to be seen.

Fletcher Defender: You may be a Man Utd fan hoping to see a few scousers clubbed over the head by the madrid police, but if you're not then I would point out, as Tim has done, that the decision is probably to protect Pool fans as much as anything else. Of course it's a hassle but far better that they protect the fans by moving the game and causing a few to miss out than risk somebody being paralysed because a copper has got a bit over-zealous with his baton.

You have to remember that this is a punishment for Atletico; For them to start it after the Liverpool match would be pointless for a number of reasons:

1- The loss of home advantage on the pitch against Liverpool is a big one for Atletico, Liverpool are easily the strongest team in the group.

2- For the Atletico fans, its a big deal to play a massive team like Liverpool at home. Prestigious, memorable, emotional etc etc. To be denied that is going to hit them fairly hard, much more so than not being able to see PSV at the Calderon. Add in the Torres factor and that increases.

The article/comments basically alludes to the fact that the Spanish teams barely seem to react to fines or 'measures' in place from the Spanish FA. To directly hit the fans and the club in a double whammy is the only thing to do. You have to remember that this isn't over a petty issue, this is widespread shouting of racial abuse at people. If you saw a man walking down a street who decided to start making money chants at someone who walked past him you'd expect tougher justice to be served than him being banned from that particular street for 2 days I think. Atletico are getting off lightly.

RE: Police force - Ateltico surely pay for the police/stewards attendance at their games therefore they are in control. The police don't attend randomly, I'm fairly certain, even though this is Spain, that there is some coordination between the club and the police force.

Adam, point taken but if United were playin in Madrid next week and id saved and paid to go, like i did on a couple of euro aways last year. I would be more than gutted. As i understand as well, a lot of fans will not be refunded.

As much as i dont like Liverpool, UEFA making this decision with a week to spare is laughable. Why not make it the week after the Marseille trouble?

The Football authorities bring this all on themselves, another example is why they wait till April to make a decision on the Tevez saga that time, when it came to light in November the year before. If they would of decided in December that year, Sheffield United would not have grumbled.

Football needs to stop delaying key decisions.

Whilst not defending the actions of Atletico in past events, I do think there has been a massive misreading of the situation.

The article COMPLETELY fails to acknowledge security video released yesterday by the spanish home office showing that the OM fans began the violence, going so far as to charge down one of the staircases en masse and into the stewards and police. This was all in reaction to the removal (after requesting removal first) of the banner with the Totenkopf/pirate skull (depending on your interests) requested to be performed by Atletico officials AND the UEFA official at the match. Again this is the spanish side of the argument so (just like Olymique´s version who hardly have the most placid set of fans in france) should be taken with a pinch of salt. Are you telling me that even if Atletico are paying for the police´s service, that you honestly believe they have any say over whether or not the police should respond to aggression? I´m not for a second denying that spanish police are heavy handed at times, but the security videos should really be seen before simply accepting OM´s position. The mentioned plastic chairs and thrown bottles were thrown from the same section of the OM supporters, as was at least one flare that was lit. The alleged racist abuse (jeez, its just so easy now to throw "racist abuse" at anything connected to spanish sport at the moment, and a lot of it is justified, but lets remember how english fans (fans, not hooligans) are still referred to abroad as hooligans, whether there be trouble or not, just lump everyone into the same category. The UK press is treating this as a ban for racist behaviour when it is about the police v OM fans), anyway, the alleged racist abuse on the day seems to be a complete mis-hearing of the kun aguero chant that exists since he came to the club, and OM player Hilton denied any existed.

Its seems to be all about the police intervention, yet when the police at Montjuic were heavily criticised for being too lenient with barca fans and letting them take flares into the stadium.

The problem is that the spanish govt has now involved itself in the case and knowing how spanish football can go to extremes with legal action, don´t bet against them taking this to the european court.

What worries me most now is the reaction of the atletico hooligans when (if, wouldnt be surprised if marseille ban them as a preventative measure)they visit marseille.

1927birds: It's entirely possible, as a Spanish article suggested, that the Atleti fans chant Kun in that matter because of it's similarity to the favoured form of racist abuse in Spain. The article compared the Kun chant with the Frente Atletico's chants of "Franco! Franco! Franco!"....for Leo Franco, but surely just an innocent misunderstanding...

a way around the problem of  playing elsewhere and affecting all the travelling away support may have been to give Atletico a suspended sentence. Say 2/3 years. Any other problems then banned from europe for 10 years.

One thing  worth mentioning with regards to the punishment is that this is perhaps to serve a warning (and punishment) not only to Ateltico, but to the rest of Spanish Football (or Spanish sport in general if you want to bring Lewis Hamilton in to it)

The whole Spain v England in 2004 is back in the press again and racist chanting is hardly a rare occurance in what is the 2nd highest profile league in the world - something certainly needs doing. Atletico are hardly being victimised here, but even those that feel they are can surely look at the wider picture and agree that only the strongest of action could be taken.

You know this is the sorta issue that u really need to hear both sides of the story comprehensively!

Platini, although at times erratic, is generally sound with his decisions and is a fair man.

I'm sure if this scenario happened vice-versa, he would have punished OM similarly.

But this is something i heard somewhere and i thought i'd share-

The Atletico fans kept chanting 'kun' 'kun' 'kun' for Aguero and apparently  this was taken as monkey chants by UEFA. Also, OM fans supposedly urinated over an Atletico Flag.

ALL THIS I HEARD FROM A FAN POSTING ON SKY SPORTS SO PLEASE I'M NOT THE AUTHORITY HERE!

Attacking the disabled fans was just cowardly, but it is a little strange that i dont hear Atletico Authorities saying that they have the Culprits on camera as it is clear now that CCTV has caught some of these actions on camera.

I don't know anything about Spanish fans, my education is this (marca,AS bashing...gently!) blog.

But I have respect for their team and i dont think they are generally rascist.

These elements are everywhere, but i hope they take the england way and stamp hooliganism out and work away on the rascism.

By the Way those spurs fans at Fratton Park need to be made an example off!

To be fair to As, they also published Guillem Balague's article roundly comdemning Atletico (www.guillembalague.com/blog_desp.php) and though I'm not a fan of Relaño's, he did make a similar plea for self-examination the previous day (www.as.com/.../Tes, my translation is at allinwhite.blogspot.com/.../against-thoughtless-racism.html) when the English FA wanted to move any proposed friendly with Spain away from the capital.

There is no question that racist abuse was chanted at the Atletico-OM match, but the UEFA punishment is slightly confusing in that it is seeking to address several issues at once. Atletico fans see themselves as victims because comparable incidents have happened plenty of times before without the same level of intervention by either UEFA or FIFA, so why now, why them?

It look slike the ban may be postponed until after Liverpool's visit and Atletico will have time to make an appeal to UEFA, who need to show consistency if they want to stamp out this sort of behaviour.

Marca and El País are reporting on their websites that the game will be played in Madrid after all, there being no time to organise the match elsewhere.

sameoldcabbage- basically it's what Adam said.But what he forgot to mention is that the Right- wing now is very active at FC Mary Poppins. One of the reasons laporta went against the Boixos Nois and their splinter Group "The casuals" (yes I know) was the amount of Seig Heils and Nazi salutes that came from them.

You are right, in the past Espanyol were very Right wing of the Skinhead OI type. But nowadays there are about half a dozen who go above " La Curva Jove" where i go and they are nasty looking characters. Think that Scouse one in This is England.But they all seem to be their late 30's early 40's. now and a lot calmer.

What's very funny is that the two main bars where these guys hang out are in one of the richest parts of the city and one of them is opposite Eto'o's house.

They insult him a lot but more for his parking a Giant 4x4 in a Bus lane and not giving a f***( and Queue jumping) than anything sinister. And they sing a song about hating him because he spat at someone rather than him being black.

Even the amount of Monkey Noises has gone down, you still get one or two morons but where don't you ?.

Espanyol's fanbase draws a lot from the wealthier areas of the City so you get a lot a Young rich kids pretending to be hard in Lazio Baseball caps but when it kicks off they are the first ones running away.

I should write a book on My life in The Espanyol Firm.

I could just make it up like that Stoke fan does.

Post script- Marseille away is not a place you want to go.

Looking for trouble ? it'll find you. went to see Sparta Prague there a few years ago. Not pleasant i can tell you.

slightly off topic, but does anyone know if Betis served their 2 match stadium ban?

 Soy socio del Atlético de Madrid y estuve en el Calderón el dia del partido. Quiero hacer unas cuantas puntualizaciones para quien entienda el castellano:

 Este club es el tercer más laureado de España, sólo detrás de los colosos Real madrid y Barça, se merece un respeto. No estoy de acuerdo con el post en varias cosas.

 Desde cuando se sanciona a un club por posibles sucesos futuros, como se dice en el post, lease las visitas de Liverpool y PSV? Estás intentando decir que los hinchas de estos eqipos vienen a liarla nada más. De dónde te sacas, y esto es inaceptable, que el Atlético no tiene capacidad de organización, eso se llama prepotencia, ya que lo dices sin ninguna base, sino aporta pruebas de ello. El Calderón es un estadio 5 estrellas Uefa.

 En el campo no hubo ningún grito racista, repito ninguno,sólo se abroncó a un jugador, casualmente negro, por una entrada de tarjeta roja a Aguero, origen del segundo gol rojiblanco. Es mentira que el entrenador galo fuera atacado, que te crees que es esto? Un bar de las afueras de Stamford Bridge?

 Hay un infome de la delegación de gobierno explicando todo lo que ocurrió antes, durante y después del partido, documentate.Además el informe del delegado Uefa y el acta arbitral son totalmente favorables al club, cada uno en su ámbito.

 POr último, los fans supuestamente descapacitados del OM, despues del gol del empate de su equipo, se curaron milagrosamente, se levantaron de sus sillas de ruedas, ( milagrooo!), y empezaron a provocar a los hinchas locales, con cortes de mangas y manos en los huevos;buscalo en la web, eso merece un post, no crees?

 Por último, deja de ser tan negativo con el Atético en particular y con los equipos españoles en general.

 Ahora que lo pienso, si el OM hubiese ganado el partido y no tuviera 0 ptos, todo esto hubiera pasado?