Cristiano Ronaldo demands lifetime bans

Cristiano Ronaldo is continuing to make his influence on the football world felt, even as he approaches the end of his career.

The Portuguese international, playing for Al-Nassr at club-level, has huge amounts of influence in Saudi Arabia after signing a new club contract last year.

Having kick-started the revolution of players moving to Saudi Arabia to play football professionally, and given his experience throughout different football leagues, Ronaldo has also garnered a huge amount of respect from players.

With the new season at its beginning, an incident in Al-Hilal’s latest match has pushed him to demand a permanent ban.

Footage from Al Taawoun Club Stadium’s stands, that has been circulated across social media, shows Hilal’s Ruben Neves standing over a free-kick when chants of ‘Jota, Jota, Jota’ because audible.

Diogo Jota tragically died last July in a high-speed car crash in Spain.

The midfielder, taunted by the chants, then appeared to applaud the crowd sarcastically before pointing to the sky and making an eye-pointing gesture towards the section of the stadium where the chant started.

The 29-year-old also spoke to reporters briefly after the game, saying: “I just hope they don’t go to pray later after what they did.”

Cristiano Ronaldo and Diogo Jota played together on the Portuguese national team, alongside Neves, with the 41-year-old calling on Saudi Pro League officials to react to the incident by implementing bans for any fans involved.

Writing on Instagram, the 41-year-old said: “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.”

Ruben Neves and Diogo Jota were close both professionally and personally, being born just four months apart whilst also being teammates at youth international level for Portugal.

The duo also played together at Porto and Wolverhampton Wanderers, joining the English side in the Championship and pushing the club into the Premier League before becoming regulars on international duty with Portugal’s senior national team.

Neves has a tattoo of himself and Jota on his calf, an active reminder of the close connection the pair had, and was a pallbearer at Jota’s funeral.

Al-Hilal went onto win the match 6-0, with Gabriel Martinelli, Ollie Watkins, and Sultan Mandash sharing the goals.

Focus will now switch to Saudi Pro League officials to see if any statement is taken, and to see if any bans are implemented on supporters.