Fulham refuse Malaga penalty shootout as Costa del Sol Trophy ends in farce

Fulham walked off the pitch at La Rosaleda rather than contest a penalty shootout, leaving Malaga to roll a spot-kick into an unguarded net and be handed the Costa del Sol Trophy in the most farcical finish imaginable. A pre-season friendly that had trundled to 2-2 dissolved into confusion at full-time, with the Premier League side heading for the dressing room to the sound of 17,179 home supporters’ displeasure.

The hosts had needed a late penalty to level the scores, Eneko Jauregi converting from 12 yards in the closing minutes after a handball offence in the box. Chances had been scarce before the late drama, with both benches treating the outing primarily as a fitness exercise. Up to that point the evening had been a gentle workout for both squads; the final stages turned it into something altogether sillier.

There was a red card too. Alvaro Arbeloa, the former Real Madrid and Liverpool full-back in his first summer as Fulham manager, was dismissed by the referee for his furious protests at an officiating decision. His players then spent several minutes in discussion with the match officials before deciding they were done for the night.

The decision that followed was the oddest of the lot. With the tie level, the traditional plan was to settle the trophy from the penalty spot, but the Cottagers declined to take part. According to Malaga officials, relayed in Goal’s detailed account of the forfeited shootout, Fulham insisted a shootout had never been part of the agreement for the fixture and that prolonging the evening would have jeopardised their travel plans, with a flight back to London waiting. The stand-off left the officials with little option but to accept the refusal, and the organisers simply awarded the 36th edition of the trophy to the hosts — not before one Malaga player had taken a penalty into an empty net, a gesture that both demonstrated the absurdity and confirmed the surrender.

The optics were dreadful for a club trying to build momentum under a new manager. Fulham’s players had already been booed as they trudged off, and the sight of their hosts celebrating with silverware after a contest decided by a kick into a vacant goal will not fade quickly. Arbeloa, a two-time Champions League winner who lifted the World Cup with Spain in 2010, arrived at Craven Cottage with a reputation for intensity, and this was not the kind of headline he wanted from his first pre-season.

The serious work continues regardless. Fulham face Stuttgart in their final friendly this weekend before attention turns fully to the Premier League, where a west London derby against Chelsea in late August will provide the true measure of Arbeloa’s rebuilding job. The chaos in Malaga was, for all its amusement value, only a friendly — but the questions it raises about discipline, communication and preparation are the sort that follow a manager into the season proper. The trophy itself, a familiar presence at La Rosaleda at this time of year, will hardly keep him awake at night; the manner of the surrender might.