[moe.ron]

MADRID’S reputation as a footballing centre of racial intolerance was further underlined yesterday when pictures appeared of two Real players posing with banners supporting a far-right supporters’ group whose leaders have neo-Nazi sympathies.

The photographs, published in a Sunday newspaper, show Raul and Luis Figo holding a flag and scarf of the Ultras Sur, a notorious band of fanatics whose members have a history of violence.

Their emergence comes just four days after England’s black players were subjected to an avalanche of racial abuse during the friendly international with Spain at Real’s Bernabeu Stadium.

Madrid-born Raul, the captain of Real and Spain, has been adopted by the Ultras Sur as their hero. He is pictured holding a banner with a far-right emblem.

The Ultras Sur were formed in 1982 and are a permanent fixture at Real’s home games. It has been even been claimed that they even receive free tickets for matches from the club.

Jose Luis Ochaita, the Ultras leader, was arrested in 1998 in Germany for waving Nazi flags and banned for matches for three years for attacking a referee in Spain. The Ultras’ second in command, Alvaro Cardenas, was jailed for four years in 2003 after admitting attacking a policeman in 1999 with a knife because he thought (wrongly) he was a South American.