"Tried to beat someone": Atlético coach demands protection from abusive fans after outburst

Diego Simeone endures a nerve-wracking Champions League evening, ending it empty-handed and in a lot of trouble. The combative coach clashes with fans and is now demanding more protection.

Atlético Madrid's star coach Diego Simeone lost control at the end of a dramatic football match: After Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk's late goal (92') made it 2-3 against Simeone's Atlético, the Argentinian clashed with a Reds supporter behind his dugout and was subsequently sent off. "The third goal was scored, and in addition to the insults, there was a gesture, and I'm only human," Simeone, who has been at Atlético since 2011 and led the club to two league titles, explained his outburst.

After his red card, Simeone then called for more protection for coaches against verbal abuse from fans. "Just as we fight racism, we should also address this issue. Because we have no right to react to it, and it's not easy to be insulted throughout the entire game," Simeone said. "My reaction is indefensible, but do you know what it's like to be insulted for 90 minutes? I hope Liverpool can improve this aspect and that there are consequences if the person is identified."

"Total madness"

Television footage shows Simeone being repeatedly given the middle finger. After the bitter final blow to the neck at the end of a nerve-wracking match in which the Spanish had come from a 2-0 deficit before van Dijk finally scored, Simeone finally attacked the fans. The BBC spoke of "chaotic scenes at Anfield," while the Daily Mail expressed shock at Simeone, "acting like Eric Cantona, trying to punch someone in the crowd. It was absolute madness." In 1995, French legend Cantona, wearing a Manchester United shirt, knocked down a rowdy fan in the stands with a kung fu kick.

Stewards eventually stood between the agitated coach and the boisterous fans. "As long as society can't solve this, every coach has to live with it, because it happens all the time," Simeone, who was long considered the highest-paid coach in the world, said with resignation. The referee told him "that he understood me, but that he still had to send me off."

For Simeone, however, this is not his first serious clash with fans: After his team's 2-0 victory over Juventus Turin in the 2019 Champions League round of 16, the former player made "an offensive gesture," as UEFA described it, toward the opposing supporters. Simeone was fined and later apologized. "It was a way of expressing all my feelings towards my players. A bad way, and I say that to close this chapter," he said. In 2022, after the Champions League second leg at Manchester United, he fled into the players' tunnel under a hail of beer mugs after refusing to shake United coach Ralf Rangnick's hand after the match.