Malaga president Abdullah Al-Thani has been fined €3,500 by Spain's anti-violence commission for a tweet in which he referred to Barcelona as "Catalan scum."
Al-Thani's tweet is written in Arabic and was translated by AS as "God willing [Madrid] will get beaten by us, but the Catalan scum will not get a whiff of the title after the lies they spread about [Malaga coach] Michel."
The comment was in response to a fan who joked Malaga should allow Real Madrid to beat them to win the title on the last day of the season, and insisted Barca would fail in their bid to win La Liga.
هذا كلامي رد على احد الأخوان pic.twitter.com/DauDVu7ONh
- Abdullah N Al Thani (@ANAALThani) April 27, 2017
Barcelona reported Al-Thani to the Spanish Football Federation's Competition Committee, La Liga's Department of Integrity and Spain's anti-violence commission.
The Spanish government's commission against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport ruled: "Malaga president Abdullah Al-Thani has been fined €3,500 for his disparaging remarks directed at a club and its autonomous community [Cataluna] through a message posted on social media Twitter."
Former Madrid player Michel will welcome Zinedine Zidane's men to La Rosaleda on May 21, the final day of the season, in a match which could decide the La Liga title race -- Barcelona are ahead of Real Madrid on head to head, but Los Blancos have played one game fewer.
Michel said last month he hoped Real would have the title won before the last game and that his team "would respect the competition as they set out to win every game.".
Michel's remarks were seized upon by a the Catalan media, who felt Malaga would lie down against Madrid, which is what drew Al-Thani's ire.
Malaga are 11th in the table and riding a four-match winning run in La Liga heading into Sunday's away game at Real Sociedad.