{"id":8711,"date":"2026-03-02T04:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/referee-halts-la-liga-game-under-racism-protocol\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:20:04","slug":"referee-halts-la-liga-game-under-racism-protocol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/referee-halts-la-liga-game-under-racism-protocol\/","title":{"rendered":"Referee halts La Liga game under racism protocol"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published19 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Sunday&#x27;s La Liga match between Elche and Espanyol was paused for three minutes under Uefa&#x27;s racism protocol, the match referee has indicated in his report.<\/p>\n<p>Referee Iosu Galech Apezteguia wrote that he halted the game after Espanyol&#x27;s Omar El Hilali said Elche&#x27;s Rafa Mir had made a racist comment to him, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GuillemBalague\/status\/2028157913835979233\">according to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague., <!-- -->external<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The incident occurred in the 78th minute.<\/p>\n<p>Under Uefa&#x27;s protocol, the referee will stop a game if a player reports alleged racism, and give details to the fourth official.<\/p>\n<p>Espanyol later posted a picture of 22-year-old Spain-born Morocco international El Hilali on social media with the message &quot;with you&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>La Liga said: &quot;We condemn any racist act. On the field and off it, there is no place for those who hate.&quot;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.elchecf.es\/noticias\/comunicado-oficial-or-activacion-de-protocolo-contra-el-racismo-durante-el-elche-cf-rcd-espanyol\">Elche said, <!-- -->external<\/a> that they condemn any discriminatory act but asked for caution in the &quot;absence of evidence&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Mir scored a 90th-minute penalty as the match was drawn 2-2.   <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c4g82mr3l3vo\">\n<p>Vinicius: Eight years at Real Madrid, 20 cases of alleged racist abuse<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published18 February<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The racism protocol was <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cpv843x1zgzo\">recently used in a Champions League game<\/a> when Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr told the match referee he had been racially abused by Benfica midfielder Gianluca Prestianni during the first leg of the play-off tie between the clubs.<\/p>\n<p>The Argentina international has denied the allegation but missed the second leg after being given a one-match ban by Uefa pending the result of a full investigation by an ethics and disciplinary inspector.<\/p>\n<p>He could be punished further once that is complete.<\/p>\n<p>Vinicius has also suffered a number of incidents of racist abuse during games in Spain.<\/p>\n<p>He was targeted Real Madrid&#x27;s match against Real Valladolid in September 2022. As a result, five people were handed suspended prison sentences in May 2025 for racially abusing the Brazil international in an &quot;unprecedented&quot; ruling in Spain.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/ce8e6y90g2jo\">\n<p>Follow your club with BBC Sport<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published17 October 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sounds\/series\/p02nrsln\">\n<p>Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/articles\/cl5q9dk9jl3o\">\n<p>Get football news sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published16 August 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Referee halts La Liga game under racism protocolImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Referee Iosu Galech Apezteguia stopped the Elche v Espanyol game after an allegation of racism Published19 minu&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}