La Liga calls for minute of silence to honour police agent

Madrid Feb 23 (IANS) La Liga on Friday called for a minute of silence to be observed in all the weekend s matches to honour a local police officer who died following a heart attack amid clashes with fans of home side Athletic Bilbao and Spartak Moscow in Spain s northern Basque region.

La Liga also condemned the fan violence that erupted ahead of the second leg of the Europe League third round on Thursday that ended with Athletic Bilbao out of the competition losing 3-4 on aggregate reports Efe.

"The professional soccer world wants to offer condolences to the relatives and friends of the Eertzania (as the local police are known in Basque region) who died last night in Bilbao before a Europe League match between Athletic Bilbao and Spartak Moscow and also to firmly condemn this act of violence " La Liga said in a statement.

The Spanish league association also vowed to continue fighting violence on the field and off as well as supporting security services.

A spokesman for FIFA told Efe that the organisation condemned the violence that marred the start of the game and had faith in the Russian authorities abilities to guarantee security during the upcoming World Cup finals.

The spokesman stressed that FIFA has been in constant communication with all involved parties to take the proper measures to tackle violence.

--IANS
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