Chaos in Malaga: were Fulham in the wrong?

How Wednesday's low-key friendly in Spain turned into worldwide news.

Image Credit: Juanje Fernandez (Radio Malaga)

I’m always a bit unsure what to make of preseason football.

It’s great to get a glimpse of new players and how Fulham will shape up ahead of a new era, but at the same time, is there much point getting worked up when all evidence suggests the results are almost meaningless when it comes to the competitive football that lies ahead?

Wednesday’s friendly against Malaga feels like the type of preseason match that Fulham haven’t played much in recent years. A ‘fun’ and easily accessible location for supporters and a match played in front of a relatively large crowd.

For the last five summers, it feels like Marco Silva has wanted to play preseason in secret and he did not hide that he absolutely hated the USA Summer Series in 2023. For Marco, an ideal summer training camp was somewhere in the depths of Portugal as far away from the public as possible. That was understandable, but it didn’t make it very enjoyable for supporters, it also felt like repeated missed marketing opportunities for the club.

This summer, it seems as if Fulham already had the Portugal camp booked, but then this friendly against Malaga was arranged fairly late and I think it’s safe to assume that was at the request of Alvaro Arbeloa’s team. It’s a shame it was organised so late, otherwise I imagine there would have been several hundred more that would have liked to attend (myself included).

The match followed a pattern much like our other preseason games; we look very exciting going forward, the increased intensity is immediately obvious, but we do look porous in defence. A full season of watching Joachim Andersen and Bernd Leno is not filling me with a huge amount of confidence.

One thing that also struck me watching this game was how much the Fulham players seemed to care about the game. While nobody was celebrating as if it was the World Cup final, the emotion after goals felt a lot stronger than your average hastily-organised friendly.

The reaction from the Fulham team and bench after Malaga were awarded the late penalty (which is awful, let’s be clear) took me aback. If anyone can name another time that a Fulham manager was sent-off in preseason, do let me know.

And look, I get it -I’ve played seven-a-side football matches that turn into full-on fights; if you’re a competitive person, you never like losing. Then again, I would have thought professionals would channel their emotional energy into the games that matter. If Arbeloa lost it to this extent at a friendly, we can expect fireworks when Fulham reach the business end of the season.

Local newspaper Malaga Hoy described Fulham’s behaviour as “childish and bizarre” while Malaga’s fans chanted “Where is Arbeloa? Where is Arbeloa?”. I’m sure that some of the banter was more anti-Real Madrid than anti-Fulham, but a new rivalry between Malaga and Fulham was not on my 2026 bingo card.

In fairness, there was little communication from Fulham that this friendly was actually a ‘trophy’ of sorts. Malaga have organised the ‘Trofeo Costa del Sol’ most years since 1961 and clearly it holds some significance for fans of Malaga, hence the healthy attendance at the game.

Of course, the real debate has been about the penalty shoot-out that Fulham reportedly refused to take part in. Fulham said afterwards on X that “we can confirm that prior to the match, both teams agreed that there would not be a penalty shootout in the event of a draw” whilst Malaga said on their website “although a penalty shootout had been scheduled, Fulham left the pitch, claiming that a shootout had not been included in the contract.”

As has been seen all over the world, Malaga then went on to take a penalty into an empty net and even claimed victory by taking a photo with the trophy.

Credit: Malaga CF

Looking back at the Trofeo Costa del Sol’s history, a penalty shoot-out has normally taken place whenever the game finishes in a draw, an outcome that last happened in 2016 when Malaga beat Sampdoria on spot-kicks.

The reasons for Fulham not taking part have been debated wildly on social media. Angry Malaga fans who even went as far to try and track the Fulham team’s plane, after reports out of Malaga claimed that Fulham refused because they were worried about missing their flight home.

If that is the reason, it’s an understandable concern. Missing a flight would come at quite some cost considering you’d need accommodation for 30+ people and a new flight. The full-time whistle was at 11pm local time and rumours are that Fulham’s flight back to London was at 1.25am. Even with just a 15-minute journey separating the stadium and the airport, you can see how time could have been tight. Then again, it’s not like the match was delayed, it was always due to start at 9pm.

Reading between the lines, it’s almost certainly true that a penalty shoot-out wasn’t in the contract, but maybe Malaga never thought it needed to be? Penalties are always what happens when a knock-out match finishes in a draw and normally teams are happy to have the opportunity to practice.

All in all, it’s a very bizarre situation. Let’s hope that in future Fulham’s preseasons become a bit less hastily arranged, which may help avoid this kind of confusion in the future.