Real Madrid’s Brazilian striker Vinicius Junior has once again complained about racism in Spain’s stadiums and accused the league of inaction.
“Racists are still coming to stadiums to see the best club in the world up close and La Liga is doing nothing,” lamented the 22-year-old black footballer. League boss Javier Tebas immediately rejected the accusation of inactivity. The league has been fighting racism for years, league boss Javier Tebas wrote on Twitter to Vinicius Junior. “It is very unfortunate, unfair and not true to state publicly that the league does nothing against racism. You better inform yourself.”
The soccer professional complained that Valladolid supporters racially insulted him at Real Madrid’s away game at the Zorrilla Stadium on Friday. Videos online showed fans calling him a “son of a bitch” and throwing an object at him, which he kicked back. Madrid won 2-0.
The Brazilian is repeatedly racially insulted, mostly as “Mono”, Spanish for monkey. In September, he was even referred to as a “monkey” by an official on the popular TV sports program “El Chiringuito”. In March, fans at an away game in Mallorca shouted that he should go “pick bananas” and chorused “Uh Uh Uh” to imitate the sounds of a monkey. Although the clubs and La Liga regularly castigate such insults, it hardly changes anything about the incidents.
In a lengthy statement on its website, the league listed some of the measures taken in the event of racial slurs by Vinicius, Iñaki and Nico Williams or Carlos Akapo. As in these cases, La Liga will report the new insults in Valladolid to the State Commission against Violence, Racism and Xenophobia and to the Hate Crimes Prosecutor.