It’s been clear for the past few years that Italy is the undisputed European champion of unacceptable fan behavior. Hell, at this point, you could say anything, anything about Italian soccer fans, and I’d be inclined to believe it. Killing a police officer with a rocket flare? Yep. Celebrating goals with Nazi salutes? Oh yeah. Riots, the firebombing buildings and attacking cops sort of riot? Check. Proto-fascist fans burning Bulgarian flags at a recent World Cup qualifier in Sofia? Hell yes (what is it with Italian soccer fans and Mussolini? He may have made the trains run on time, but everywhere outside of Italy he’s a laughingstock).

But, there’s a challenger to Italy’s throne. Anywhere else in the world, Spain’s sports culture would be the epitome of dysfunction. There aren’t riots, there aren’t really any deaths, but there are astoundingly high levels of virulent, casual racism. Just this summer, there was the “eye incident” with the national basketball teams, who apparently didn’t think they were doing anything wrong. Earlier this year, there were these upstanding citizens at a Formula One race. Hell, the country’s patron saint is known as St. James the Moor-slayer.

In soccer, this sort of thing is so common it barely warrants recognition (when the national manager can call an opposing player a “black shit” without getting fired, you’ve got a problem). Watch enough La Liga, and you’ll hear the monkey chants, maybe see a banana or two, and if the touchline is close enough to the fans, you might even see a player spat on when he tries to take a corner. Sure you can make excuses, but those only go so far. Really guys, the Reconquista is totally not a valid excuse for behavior in the 21st century. Ferdinand and Isabella had to kick the Moors out of their country. What’s your excuse?

“So what?” you say, “Spain is a stinking cesspool of racism, a country-sized McCain/Palin rally, nothing new.” Ah, but what you don’t know is that UEFA finally punished someone for it. UEFA dropped the hammer on Atletico Madrid for racist chanting and abuse directed at Marseille players and visiting journalists during a Champions League match. The club was fined 150,000 Euros, but also had their next two Champions League home games suspended, meaning that they’ll have to play those games at least 300 kilometers outside of Madrid. I wonder if Sevilla is 300km from Madrid…it’d be a perfect enviroment for Atleti fans.

Naturally, the fact that this ban is noteworthy means that there’s still work to be done. This sort of abuse seems to be common during matches throughout Eastern Europe, and Feyenoord still has their, uh, odd gas chamber cheers when they play Ajax. The size of the club is also noteworthy. Atletico Madrid is a big club, to be sure, but nowhere near the biggest in Spain. I seriously doubt that UEFA would have the guts to punish a country’s “flagship” club, like Real Madrid or even Dinamo Zagreb for similar behavior. The next time someone talks about how much better sports are run in Europe (yes, there are people that delusional…I’ve met them), just think about what would happen if any fans in North America came close to this sort of behavior.