Ronaldo calls for lifetime stadium bans over taunts by Al Hilal fans Cristiano Ronaldo urges Saudi Pro League to ban supporters from stadium for lifetime for taunts on Wednesday 02 October 2024 21:36, UK Cristiano Ronaldo has called for supporters who taunted his former Portugal team-mate Rben Neves about the late Diogo Jota to be given lifetime bans from the stadium. Jota was killed with his brother in a car crash in Spain in July 2025. Both Neves and Ronaldo were international team-mates of Jota.
Video circulating on social media on Saturday shows Neves standing alongside Al Hilal team-mate Crysencio Summerville in front of other fans in the stands of Al Taawoun’s home ground, taking a free kick amid jeers of “Jota, Jota, Jota”.
Neves appears to then sarcastically applaud and nod in approval to the spectators before raising his hands and pointing towards his eye and then to the sky before indicating the direction the chants are coming from. After the game, the midfielder was asked by reporters in the mixed zone: “I just hope they don’t go to pray later after what they did”.
Ronaldo, who currently plays for Al Nassr but has spent several stints with Portugal on the international stage while playing alongside Neves and Jota, posted a comment on an Instagram post showing footage of the incident, demanding: “The league must take action and punish this kind of fan behavior. This is no longer football, and there have to be limits.
People who behave like this should never be allowed to enter a stadium again”.
Neves and Jota became close after playing together in Portugal and Porto youth teams, and Neves was a pallbearer at Jota’s funeral. The Portuguese midfielder took over Jota’s Portugal number 21 shirt last year. Al Hilal, coached by former Germany boss Niko Kallberg, stayed at the top of the Saudi Pro League table with a 6-0 home win over bottom club Al Taawoun, with Gabriel Martinelli scoring a hat-trick and Ollie Watkins of England adding a brace.
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