Villareal hand lifetime ban to fan who threw banana at Alves

Villareal have banned the fan who threw a banana at Barcelona’s Dani Alves during their La Liga match at the El Madrigal on Sunday. Barcelona staged a remarkable fightback to beat Villareal 3-2 after being 0-2 down, but that achievement was overshadowed when a racist fan threw a banana at Alves — who reacted by picking it up and taking a bite off it. The reaction went viral on social media , with footballers taking to posting pictures of themselves eating the yellow fruit and media personalities eating it on live television. ‘#WeAreAllMonkeys’ also started trending on Twitter. [caption id=“attachment_1501885” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Dani Alves. Getty Images[/caption] A statement from the Villareal read: “Villarreal CF wants to communicate that the club deeply regrets and condemns the incident that happened on Sunday during the match against FC Barcelona in which a fan threw an object onto the field of El Madrigal. “Thanks to the security forces and the invaluable assistance of the Yellow crowd, the club has already identified the person and has decided to withdraw his season tickets, permanently banning his access to El Madrigal stadium. “Once again our club would like to express its firm commitment to promoting respect, equality, sportsmanship and fair play both on and off the field and our absolute rejection of any act that is contrary to these principles, such as violence, discrimination, racism and xenophobia.”