{"id":870712,"date":"2026-04-04T03:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/870712\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T03:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T03:38:19","slug":"moroccan-star-on-the-egypt-match-incident-a-lack-of-respect-for-religions-but-spain-isnt-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/870712\/","title":{"rendered":"Moroccan star on the Egypt match incident: A lack of respect for religions&#8230; but Spain isn\u2019t racist"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:right\">Moroccan footballer Omar El Hilali, a full-back for Espanyol, has expressed his strong condemnation of the racist chants heard during the recent friendly match between the Spanish and Egyptian national teams at the Catalan club\u2019s stadium.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">Speaking to the<b\/>Spanish newspaper <b><strong>*Sport*<\/strong><\/b>, El Hilali said: \u201cI think everything has been said, and the images are there\u2026 I don\u2019t know how many people were involved, but they are certainly a minority, and after that, the necessary action will be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">He added: \u201cBut yes, these chants are regrettable, whether against Muslims or Christians\u2026 or against all religions. I believe this constitutes a lack of respect for a religion followed by a large number of people, and I repeat: it is a lack of respect for any religion in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read also<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><b><strong>Real Madrid are not Atalanta&#8230; Kane sounds the alarm in Munich<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><b><strong>Vin\u00edcius out for Real Madrid ahead of Bayern Munich clash&#8230; and D\u00edaz to accompany Mbapp\u00e9<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\"><b><strong>Europe and racism: England leads the way in tackling the issue&#8230; and Yamal suffers from Vin\u00edcius\u2019s absence<\/strong><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">The young player continued: \u201cIt\u2019s very difficult, because there are so many fans, and you\u2019re focused on the match\u2026 but if I were in Lamine Yamal\u2019s (the Spanish player\u2019s) shoes, it would certainly bother me\u2026 I believe these chants should never happen, and those responsible must be held to account; they are a minority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">On his view of racism in Spanish stadiums, based on his own experience, El Hilali explained: \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that Spain isn\u2019t a racist country from my personal experience, despite some isolated incidents. You can\u2019t generalise the actions of a few to an entire country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">The Moroccan star noted that he had been subjected to racist incidents in the past, emphasising his confidence in the legal process by saying: \u201cUntil the matter is 100% resolved, I cannot comment further.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:right\">He concluded: &#8220;At the end of the day, we are human beings before we are players. We must respect one another, because without respect, football is meaningless.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Moroccan footballer Omar El Hilali, a full-back for Espanyol, has expressed his strong condemnation of the racist chants&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5312],"tags":[321,48111,247127,2000,299,86329,7325,247126,150511,104,246358],"class_list":["post-870712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-egypt","tag-espanyol","tag-espanyol-vs-real-oviedo","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-friendlies","tag-laliga","tag-o-el-hilali","tag-real-oviedo","tag-spain","tag-spain-vs-egypt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116344357151913597","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}