Police identify three Espanyol fans by a referee's banner with a target on his head.

The National Police have identified three people "linked to the radical ultra-sports group La Curva" for spreading images of a threatening banner against referee Carlos del Cerro Grande that appeared near the RCDE Stadium on March 29, before the Espanyol -Atlético de Madrid match. The banner featured a drawing of the referee's head with a target pointed at his forehead, under the caption "WANTED," which the police are investigating as a possible crime of threats.

The so-called Operation Pitch began when Del Cerro, the Royal Spanish Football Federation, and LaLiga filed complaints about the banner. The refereeing community had also expressed its displeasure: "These are unacceptable acts," they said in a statement. "We believe this situation is a direct consequence of the escalating verbal violence we are experiencing from certain sectors of society and many key players in the world of football. Far from helping to ease tensions, some public discourse seems to encourage this type of behavior, generating an increasingly hostile climate toward our community."

Del Cerro Grande wasn't designated to referee that March 29 match, but had officiated as a VAR referee two weeks earlier in the Mallorca-Espanyol match. That afternoon, he intervened to ask the on-field referee to review a penalty that Joan García had saved from Abdón Prats. Two players had entered the penalty area prematurely. The penalty was retaken, and Muriqi converted what turned out to be the final 2-1.

That night, the Barcelona club published a statement on its website criticizing Del Cerro's performance: "RCD Espanyol wishes to express its deep concern over the refereeing decisions, many of them at the behest of the VAR, which have left our club and fans feeling helpless and frustrated by decisions that we find difficult to understand."

They issued another statement after the banner with the target over the VAR referee's head appeared: "RCD Espanyol de Barcelona strongly condemns any incitement to violence in the world of football. The club deeply regrets the appearance of a banner outside the RCDE Stadium, which crosses sporting and personal boundaries against one of the members of the refereeing team. The evident tension we are experiencing in our football makes it even more necessary, if possible, to take extreme measures to eradicate any type of violent act."

Police have now identified three people responsible for managing the social media accounts that posted photographs of the banner, "accompanied by insulting and threatening phrases, as well as messages that aroused unequivocal animosity and hostility toward the referee, expressing a real, serious, and objective threat sufficient to intimidate and instill fear in him," according to the statement released Tuesday by the Ministry of the Interior.