Athletic Bilbao football club has lodged an official complaint over long delays suffered by returning fans at Bucharest's airports. The Romanian media picked up a comment from an involved Athletic Bilbao fan reported by Spanish news service El Correo, in which he described the scenes at the airport as a shameful chaos, and called Romania “third world.”

It was one of many comments of frustration from Bilbao fans facing airport delays, many of whom talked of the flight problems adding insult to the injury of a 3 – 0 defeat in the game.

Athletic Bilbao has released a statement saying “the strongest possible protest will be made over the deficiencies in planning, the lack of corrective measures and the treatment of Bilbao fans,” while they were trying to get home from Bucharest.

The team lost to Atletic Madrid in the UEFA Europa League final in Bucharest on Wednesday evening ( May 9) with a score of 3-0, when 25,000 Spanish supporters came to Romania to attend the game. Over 52,000 were on the National Arena for the final.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com