Espanyol face 18,500 euro fine for crowd trouble

Espanyol could be fined 18,500 euros ($26,170) and six fans 65,000 euros each after flares were thrown at Saturday's Espanyol-Barcelona match, a spokesman for the sports ministry said on Wednesday.

Crowd trouble at the Primera Liga game forced the referee to halt it for almost 10 minutes and take the players off the pitch during the second half.

Home side Espanyol were 1-0 up when television pictures showed a flare being lobbed from the upper stands in the direction of the fans below.

On Wednesday, a spokesman from the sports ministry said the commission in charge of stamping out violence in sport had proposed fines against five Barcelona fans and one Espanyol fan, considering the throwing of flares to be a serious offence.

Espanyol, who lost the game 2-1, are facing sanctions for allegations that controls at the ground on Saturday were not properly enforced, said the spokesman. A final decision on the sanctions will be taken by the Spanish government's representative in Catalonia. The six fans are also facing five-year bans from sport grounds, the sports ministry spokesman said.

On Monday, in a separate legal hearing on the trouble at the game, the Barcelona fans were remanded in custody. The Spanish Football Federation's competition committee, which has powers to close grounds, is also investigating allegations made by both Barcelona and Espanyol about incidents at the game. It will announce whether it intends taking disciplinary action on Oct. 7.

Saturday's crowd trouble has reawakened concerns about violence in soccer, coming after a number of games in recent years when fans have thrown coins or made racist chants. It has also reminded Spain of an Espanyol game in 1992 when a 13-year-old boy was killed when a flare was thrown.