Espanyol denounce 'unacceptable' inappropriate touching during Catalan derby

Espanyol have denounced the "unacceptable" touching from Barça player Mapi León on their player Daniela Caracas during the Catalan derby played over the weekend.

Barça won the hard-fought derby 0-2, but the game has made far more headlines for the incident involving León and Caracas. 

Many on social media also speculate that León, after touching Caracas in an intimate manner, asks her, "tienes picha?", which translates, in vulgar colloquial language, to "do you have a penis?" 

"During a play during the match, FC Barcelona player María Pilar León, in the middle of a scuffle with our player, Daniela Caracas, made a gesture that violated our player's privacy," a statement from Espanyol published on Monday reads. "Although Caracas was unable to react at the time due to the impact the situation had on her, later, when she came to terms with what had happened, she became aware of the seriousness of the gesture, but chose not to react angrily to avoid a disciplinary sanction and harm to the team."

"In addition to what happened on the field of play, there was the regrettable reaction on social media, where our player was the target of insults from hundreds of profiles. We are concerned that, instead of focusing on the act itself, part of the media attention has been diverted to other issues unrelated to the seriousness of the action," the club explained, expressing condemnation of both events.

"At RCD Espanyol we defend our player and condemn any act that threatens the integrity of female footballers on the pitch. We firmly believe in respect and sportsmanship as fundamental values ​​of football and we hope that these types of situations are treated with the seriousness they deserve. In addition, we have made the Club's legal services available to our player in case she wishes to take legal action," the pericos explained.