Jaime Fernández's family will not easily forget the last Barcelona-Real Madrid match, held last Saturday at the Olympic Stadium in Montjuic. They live in a town near Barcelona and approached the pitch to try to get tickets to see the classic, but they didn't get in. While the four waited at the gates of the venue, "between 20 and 30 Barcelona ultras", they denounce, began to "harass and insult" their 7-year-old son, who has grade 1 autism, and even ended up throwing a firecracker at him that caused the little boy's nerves. Everything, they insist, "because he was wearing a Real Madrid scarf".

Jaime, 35, has reported the situation to LaLiga, which will contact the family and analyse the cameras of Montjuic to clarify what happened.

"We had stopped at the Dazn booth and the kid was given some things. And since he likes white better, he chose the Madrid scarf," Jaime explains in conversation with EL MUNDO, admitting that in his case "he's not much of a football fan".

On the way up to Montjuic, they approached one of the gates to see if they could get tickets, and their problems began. "A group of about 20 or 25 people, about 30 years old, came and started to surround us and insult the boy, who was the one who was wearing something from Madrid. They told him 'pig, dog, son of a bitch, take that off because we're going to burn it'... All in a rather threatening attitude," he sums up. As the time for the match approached and the mass of people grew, they could not find any member of the Mossos d'Esquadra who could help them.

"My wife started telling them that the child had autism, to be calm. But they were coming even higher. Then one of them came, took out a firecracker and threw it at the boy's feet. We took it and it exploded just over a meter away. Imagine the scare. He panicked and got really sick. Autistic children are very affected by noise and crouched down to the ground. We took the child and the little boy, who is 3 years old, and ran out of there," he says, acknowledging that the little boy, named Arkaitz, "was not well the next day either. I didn't understand anything."

An unfortunate situation that, unfortunately, is not the first to be denounced on the fields of Spanish football.

  • Real Madrid
  • FC Barcelona