The investigating judge appointed on May 17 by the Competition Committee has proposed the closure of the Spanish stadium Stage Front -formerly RCDE Stadium- for two games due to the invasion of the pitch on May 14 during the league derby against Barcelona. This is, in practice, that the first two official matches of the 2023-24 season are played behind closed doors, without an audience, with Racing Santander as rivals on the weekend of August 20 and Amorebieta, the September 3.
Espanyol, through a statement, considers the sanction of the Competition Committee "unfair and disproportionate". The blue and white entity expressed its "total disagreement" with the decision of this body. The institution considered that there is an "exemplary" factor in this sanction that only responds to "biased value judgments" and that, in its opinion, "lacks foundation."
The club assures that it will exhaust, "in defense of our legitimate interests and those of our fans, all the means of appeal and protection at our disposal".
“RCD Espanyol wants to show its total disagreement with the, in our opinion, disproportionate and unfair sanction imposed by the Competition Committee on the club that would mean the closure of the Stage Front Stadium for two games as a result of the events that occurred at the end of the last derby and we will appeal the sanction to all possible instances.
RCD Espanyol has always spoken out against any violent act or behavior that could tarnish the image of the entity and our fans. In this sense, our Club has always faced its responsibilities by acting in an exemplary and proactive manner when situations have occurred that violated the values of the club and the sport. In addition, in the case at hand and as the security forces themselves have recognized, RCD Espanyol had all the means and measures necessary for a match like the one played last May, collaborating from minute one in everything required by authorities and with the security forces themselves.
As we have reiterated on multiple occasions, these behaviors have no place in football or in society and we will continue to act in the most forceful way to eradicate them from our facilities.
However, we understand that a disproportionate criterion is applied here, inconsistent with other cases that affects the entire club and season ticket holders from all sectors of the Stadium. A sanction that we consider disproportionate by the Competition Committee, applying in our opinion an exemplary aggravating circumstance that lacks legal grounds or tangible support beyond biased value judgments.
Therefore, in defense of our legitimate interests and those of our fans, we will exhaust all means of appeal and protection at our disposal”.
