Match disrupted by terrorist threat

Madrid and Sociedad arrange seven minute match

After the bomb threat that forced the evacuation of the Bernabeu stadium on Sunday, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad will play the remaining seven minutes of their Primera Liga match.

With the match level at 1-1, the 70,000 fans calmly left the stadium after Basque newspaper Gara received a warning from a caller claiming to represent ETA who said there was a bomb in the ground.

The clubs have agreed to play the remainder of the match at 6pm CET on 5 January.

It’s not that first occasion in recent times that a Real Madrid game has failed to finish. Their league game at Real Betis in September 2002 was abandoned after floodlight failure at Betis’ Estadio Manuel Ruiz de Lopera.

The kick-off was delayed for 16 minutes after the floodlights were flickering on and off. Referee Juan Antonio Fernandez Marin briefly halted the game ten minutes into the first half before the floodlights failed completely as he was about to blow his whistle for half time with Betis leading 1-0. The game was replayed a month later and it ended in a 1-1 draw.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid have appealed against sanctions imposed last week by Uefa for alleged racism by their supporters. They received a 9,780 euros (£6,767) fine.

UEFA have accused Madrid’s fans of making racist noises and gestures at Bayer Leverkusen’s black defenders Juan Silveira Dos Santos and Roque Junior during the Champions League game on 23 November. It was also at the Bernabeu that England’s players were abused last month.

It is thought the relatively lenient fine took into account this being the first time that such offences had occurred involving Real supporters.

However, it’s not the first time Madrid supporters have come under UEFA’s disciplinary spotlight. They previously caused trouble in 1998, and the club was subsequently fined, after fans pulled down a perimeter fence during a Champions League semi-final against Borussia Dortmund.