The Saudi Arabian Football Federation has ordered Al Taawoun to play their next two home Saudi Pro League matches behind closed doors and fined the club 100,000 riyals ($26,660 / £19,796) after the supporters were filmed chanting the name of the late Liverpool and Portugal forward Diogo Jota during Saturday’s match against Al Hilal.
Jota was killed alongside his brother when the car they were in crashed in Zamora, Spain, in July 2025. Footage circulating on social media during the weekend appeared to show Jota’s close friend and former teammate Rúben Neves, who plays for Al Hilal, reacting to the chanting during his team’s 6-0 win at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium.
Neves appears to react by sarcastically applauding and giving a thumbs up to the supporters before pointing to the sky and his own eye before then pointing in the direction from which the chanting is coming from.
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After the match, the midfielder walked through the mixed zone, saying to reporters: “I just hope they don’t go to pray later after what they did.”
Neves and Jota grew close after playing together in youth teams for Portugal and Porto before becoming teammates at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Neves was a pallbearer at Jota’s funeral. Neves inherited Jota’s Portugal No. 21 shirt last year.
On Sunday, Cristiano Ronaldo, who also played alongside Jota for Portugal, called on the Saudi Pro League to issue lifetime stadium bans to any supporter found to have been involved in the taunting of Neves.
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“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,” the Al Nassr forward wrote in a comment on an Instagram post showing footage of the incident.
The Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s disciplinary and ethics committee found Al Taawoun’s supporters to have violated article (51-2) of their regulations, issuing the fine and stadium ban as a result. The decision is not subject to appeal.
