MADRID (AFP) - Spanish media expressed their fear that Madrid`s hopes of staging the 2012 Olympic Games could be derailed by the racism which engulfed the country`s friendly football win over England in midweek.
Madrid is one of the cities, along with Paris, London, New York and Moscow, hoping to win the right to host the Games in 2012.
However some newspapers hit out at the country`s "blindness" over the kind of racism which blotted the home team`s copybook in Wednesday`s 1-0 win.
Monkey-like chanting by several thousand fans at Real Madrid`s Santiago Bernabeu stadium -- home to Real`s England stars David Beckham and Michael Owen -- disgusted the England team and their coach Seven-Goran Eriksson.
Football`s world governing body FIFA on Thursday condemned the supporters responsible, while on Friday Spain offered an official apology for the ugly scenes.
AS sports daily said in an editorial that Spain suffered from an "incredible national blindness" to the problem which was "reflected in the Spanish media".
It added that Real Madrid and Spain striker Raul "should ask for forgiveness" on his country`s behalf, while one columnist for the paper said the Spanish Football Federation should sack coach Luis Aragones.
Aragones refused to comment about the racism having previously sparked controversy by making a disparaging comment of a racial nature about black Arsenal and France striker Thierry Henry.
Marca, which like AS and much of the press had concentrated in Thursday editions on the match itself rather than the chanting, on Friday made the affair its "topic of the day", spread over four pages.
Marca`s front page featured pictures of Barcelona`s Cameroon striker Samuel Eto`o with his skin lightened and Real Madrid`s French star Zinedine Zidane with his skin darkened next to the slogan "football cannot allow racist gestures".
But the paper also pondered whether "English football really has the moral capacity to teach (Spain) a lesson when its hooligans continue to blacken the sport and when similar episodes have happened in its stadiums".
EL Mundo daily saw the row as a potential spanner in the works for Madrid`s Olympic bid with a headline "London using racism against Madrid 2012".
The paper also wrote that "if Luis (Aragones) had apologised (over his Henry remark) none of what happened at the Bernabeu would have done".
According to AS, "the Madrid 2012 candidature is hanging in the balance," while El Pais, noting the row came just as the Olympic dossiers were being unveiled, said the damage to the bid would depend on the way Spain dealt with the racism issue.
England`s Football Association in London earlier said it welcomed an official apology received from its Spanish counterpart for the abuse.
11/19/2004 - 19:01 GMT - AFP