Real Madrid‘s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool in the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League left fans disappointed, but the controversy surrounding star Vinicius Junior has taken center stage after a recent social media post. While recovering from a hamstring injury, Vinicius took to Instagram to show his support for the team. However, his seemingly innocent gesture led to accusations of illegal streaming and piracy.
The Brazilian forward, who has been sidelined since sustaining the injury against Leganes, posted a story on Instagram during his rehabilitation. The post quickly caught the attention of La Liga president Javier Tebas, who accused Vinicius of pirating the Champions League match.
“If he’s in Madrid, and I believe he was in Madrid, it’s piracy. Access to the content to watch the Champions League in Spain must be through Movistar Television. To view that content, he would have needed a VPN or a satellite dish pointed elsewhere. There must have been an active action to bypass Movistar,” Tebas stated at a conference on piracy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Tebas, who has led an ongoing campaign against piracy in Spanish football, made it clear that any instance of illegal streaming, whether by a player or a fan, will be addressed. The La Liga president even sent a formal letter to Real Madrid expressing his concerns: “He was pirating the match. It has been communicated that next time, they should not pirate the match.”
While Vinicius is expected to be sidelined for at least a month due to his injury, the piracy controversy has raised questions about whether the player could face any disciplinary action. Is a suspension on the cards for the Brazilian forward?
In this case, it’s unlikely that Vinicius will face a suspension. Piracy-related sanctions in football generally involve fines, which can reach up to 500 euros, but it’s expected that Vinicius will only receive a formal warning rather than any ban or severe penalty. As one of the sport’s biggest stars, the situation remains under close scrutiny, but Tebas is likely to approach the matter with caution, given the nature of the offense.
This isn’t the first time a La Liga player has been linked to piracy this season. A similar situation occurred on Matchday 1 of the 2024-25 La Liga season when Barcelona’s Fermin Lopez, who was on vacation following the 2024 Paris Olympics, posted an Instagram story watching a match on a pirate streaming site. Like Vinicius, Lopez was called out for the incident but did not face any official sanctions or bans.
