Jorge Sampaoli admits he is “a little surprised” by Sevilla’s efforts to eradicate the ultras culture among their fan base.
Los Biris announced on Friday that they would “cease their activities as a collective” in response to Sevilla prohibiting any banner at Sanchez Pizjuan referring to the ultras group, whom the club deem to have a history of trouble and violence.
“Los Biris? I don’t know if [the club’s decision] affects them or not, I honestly don’t know about these external situations, I just want the stadium to be supporting the team, pushing them on and giving them a lot of strength,” the Coach said at a Press conference ahead of Sunday’s clash with Villarreal in La Liga.
“I can’t judge something I don’t know, I know very little about what led to this decision.
“Maybe they’re a group of people who are linked to violence and not Sevilla, but the players and ourselves feel the support of the fans in that area of the stadium very much.
“I’m a little surprised by the decision, but I can’t question it because I don’t know the reasons.
“Losing to Espanyol was difficult for us because we had the enthusiasm of continuing our [winning] streak.
“Now we have a very difficult game against direct rivals, who are going to demand a lot of us, so we’ll have to be at our best in order to regain the level of our previous matches.
“We’ll try to regain our enthusiasm in this match and make up the ground we’ve lost.”
