It wasn’t even 15 minutes of fame. With luck, 15 seconds. Enough during the live broadcast of a Copa final. Dozens of Atlético de Madrid fans in the front rows of the Estadio de la Cartuja waited with their backs to the pitch for the second half to start. The image was powerful: all wore the same jersey. And all the shirts bore the same number: 82. It wasn’t a squad number. But the date commemorating the founding year of Frente Atlético: 1982.
The photograph of that moment was relatively anecdotal: with the most radical groups of supporters from both teams clashing since the murder of Real fan, Aitor Zabaleta, in 1998, police surveillance around this Copa del Rey final was maximum. Hence the news known just hours before the match: The National Police had identified 160 radical fans since Friday as part of the special operation deployed for the celebration of the final in Seville. The Police seized a large quantity of “blunt objects, including knives, sticks, chains, balaclavas, and more than a hundred iron bars.”
The interventions took place in the vicinity of the municipality of La Carlota (Córdoba), as well as in the city of Seville and at the points from which fans travel, arrival points, and travel routes, the Police reported. Already on Friday night, in La Carlota, agents of this special operation, made up of more than 1,600 police officers, detected two buses of radical fans from Madrid.
During the intervention, 91 people were identified and reports were filed for violations of the Sports Law and the Citizen Security Law after “numerous blunt and dangerous material, presumably intended to be used for confrontations with other rival fans,” was seized.
Among the material seized, a pistol holster and 26 wooden sticks simulating flags, hidden in one of the buses, were detected. In the other vehicle, a mouthguard, numerous balaclavas, two chains, a knife, paint sprays, and another 25 wooden sticks were confiscated.
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🚩Iron bars, wooden sticks, knives, flare launchers, mouthguards and other dangerous objects
This is the material we have seized from ultra groups traveling to the #FinalCopaDelRey2026 in #Sevilla
We continue working#SomosTuPolicía pic.twitter.com/Z1ECHTGGfB
— Policía Nacional (@policia) April 18, 2026
Also in Seville capital, other ultra fans from both Madrid and the Basque Country were identified. Specifically, according to the Government sub-delegate in Seville, Francisco Toscano, at a press conference, 60 Real Sociedad ultras were identified, from whom blunt material hidden in cars and vans was seized, such as a box loaded with 95 iron bars.
Other dangerous and defensive objects were also seized, such as vests, 12 helmets, a knuckle duster, 31 flares, 19 flare launchers, two knives, three mouthguards, pepper spray, shirts with ultra symbolism, hundreds of motorcycle gloves with protections, balaclavas, and a puncture-proof vest. “Infiltrated in these ultra groups from both sides, ultras from Seville and other European countries were also identified,” according to Toscano.
The government representative in Seville pointed out that the police work focused on “avoiding, as far as possible, that the ultra groups of both teams coincide and, if any small altercation occurs, being able to react as quickly as possible.” Toscano also wanted to emphasize that “the majority of fans” were behaving “perfectly.”
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