Vinicius claims LaLiga does 'nothing' about racial abuse
Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr. was yet again the target of racial abuse on Friday. The Brazilian starlet played 88 minutes of his team’s win against Real Valladolid.
Vinicius had to walk all the way around the pitch to the Madrid bench when he was substituted. During this time, rival fans were heard yelling remarks towards the player. A video of the incident was posted on Twitter.
Vinicius spoke on the despicable fan actions after the match. He even claimed that LaLiga is not doing enough to curb these incidents. “Racists keep going to games and watching the greatest club in the world up close and La Liga continues to do nothing,” said Vinicius.
“I will carry on with my head held high and celebrating my victories and those of Madrid. In the end the fault is mine.”
Spanish league claims hate speech doesn’t belong in sport
LaLiga responded to Vinicius’ comments by saying that “hate speech has no place” in the league. “We are investigating last night’s match and, as always in these cases, will work with the clubs and appropriate authorities to identify and prosecute anyone guilty of hate speech,” a statement from the league continued.
“LaLiga has detected videos uploaded to social networks of racist insults from a person, not from groups, and they will be charged as in previous cases.”
Vinicius targeted multiple times this season
Agent Pedro Bravo also previously made racist remarks about Vinicius while on Spanish TV. The agent told the youngster to “stop playing the monkey” in his goal celebrations. Bravo eventually apologized for the comments.
The young Brazilian was targeted by Atletico Madrid fans during a game in September as well. Atleti quickly condemned the actions after the Real win earlier in the season. “We will not allow any individual to hide behind our colors to utter insults of a racist or xenophobic nature,” claimed the club.
LaLiga closed their investigation into the September incident without taking any action. The league insisted that it was impossible to identify the culprits in the racist chants.
Photo credit: IMAGO / Ricardo Larreina Amador