Barcelona are likely to be charged for offensive chanting at the Camp Nou during Sunday's 5-1 win over Espanyol, as the football authorities and Spanish government continue to push to exclude all forms of violence from La Liga.
The death of a Deportivo La Coruna fan in fighting with Atletico Madrid fans before a match on Nov. 30 has led to a push to break links between radical supporters groups and clubs by eliminating all forms of anti-social behaviour from the sport.
It emerged on Sunday that Real Madrid were likely to be charged after chants against Barcelona and Lionel Messi were heard at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu during Saturday's 3-0 La Liga win over Celta Vigo.
Such action took many by surprise, given similar chants have long gone unpunished, and Madrid president Florentino Perez is said to be especially upset as his club moved swiftly to deal with the issue by banning 17 individuals from the Bernabeu on Sunday. Marca says Perez feels his club is being singled out by La Liga chiefs, and not for the first time.
Speaking on Sunday night's El Larguero radio programme, La Liga president Javier Tebas said he personally felt it was his job to intervene in such cases and ensure the issue was fully dealt with.
"If it is true that they have expelled 17 [individuals], that is what they must do: eradicate the groups," Tebas said. "But this does not mean that I, as president of the LFP, am prevented from taking decisions."
Similarly offensive songs were noted at the Camp Nou during Sunday's Catalan capital derby, and AS reports that Barca are now also likely to be charged, with offensive chanting at Rayo Vallecano and Real Betis having caught the attention of the authorities too.
On Tuesday morning Spain's minister for Education, Culture and Sport Jose Ignacio Wert told Radio Nacional de Espana that the joined-up campaign provoked by the latest incident of violence among ultras groups was now aimed at eliminating "symbolic" violence from football stadiums.
"This is not just going to be limited to physical violence," Wert said. "We will also prolong this to symbolic violence. It is a realistic objective to [rid grounds of] racist and xenophobic expressions."
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said he agreed with the idea that insults from fans were a form of violence which should not be accepted, when speaking ahead of Tuesday's Champions League group game at home to Ludogorets.
"I don't have the power to make decisions in this regard," Ancelotti said. "I can only say that we must all understand that insults are a form of violence. I would like to have a support that gets behind us for the whole match, as it has done many times, and nothing else."
Speaking after Sunday's game, Barcelona coach Luis Enrique was more sceptical about the chances of eliminating all offensive chanting from Spanish stadiums, and Blaugrana left-back Jordi Alba has also said he is not personally affected by insults from opposing fans.
"For me this is not one thing or the other," Alba said in AS. "The fans are free to give their opinions, to insult, or to lift their team. But anyway, my opinion will not do much either way."
Atletico coach Diego Simeone was less keen to comment when asked to respond to the quotes from Luis Enrique and Ancelotti at a news conference ahead of his side's Champions League fixture on Tuesday.
"Tomorrow we have a very important game against Juventus," Simeone replied.
