Real Madrid players, fans support Vinicius Junior after racist abuse

MADRID - Vinicius Junior’s Real Madrid teammates showed him support after he was racially abused, by wearing his No. 20 shirt before their 2-1 La Liga win against Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old Brazilian winger was present at the Santiago Bernabeu, although he was not part of the squad for the game because of a knee problem, and his colleagues applauded him as he watched from the side of the pitch.

Vinicius faced off with a supporter

at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium last Sunday after being abused during the match, and was later sent off for hitting Hugo Duro. However, the Spanish football federation’s competition committee revoked his red card late on Tuesday because some images from the VAR (video assistant referee) video were not shown to the referee who sent him off.

Valencia had the Mario Kempes Stand of the Mestalla shut for five matches and were fined €45,000 (S$65,300) as punishment for the racist abuse, which they said they will appeal against. Seven men have also been arrested by police over two separate incidents – including Sunday’s – targeting Vinicius.

On Wednesday, a banner in one stand read “We are all Vinicius, enough already!” while players held up another message reading “Racists, out of football”, as part of a campaign from the federation and La Liga.

After 20 minutes, supporters around the stadium chanted “Vini, Vini” and applauded, with Vinicius standing up and applauding them back, returning their support with a thumbs up.

The player watched the game from Real’s presidential box, alongside club president Florentino Perez.

Vinicius may return to action on Saturday when Los Blancos visit Europa League finalists Sevilla.

La Liga president Javier Tebas, meanwhile, apologised for his online rant at Vinicius after the Brazilian took to social media to complain about the

racist insults he suffered and the Spanish football league’s inaction.

“Well, it seems that the result has not been very good, right?” Tebas said, referring to his much-criticised comments on Twitter in which he suggested that Vinicius find out more about what the league is doing to combat racism “before you criticise and slander La Liga”.

“I mean, to all those who have understood that this was an error due to the time... I have to apologise. I apologise to Vinicius and to anyone that understood that I was attacking Vinicius (in the heat of the moment).”

Tebas added that he shared Vinicius’ frustration over the lack of action to eradicate racism in Spain and took aim at Spanish authorities for not doing enough to clamp down on racism.

He said that he felt “impotent” to tackle racism in football as, under Spanish law, La Liga can only detect and report racist incidents and are unable to take further action.

He urged legislative changes so La Liga can have sanctioning powers, such as the closure of stands or the expulsion of club members, in order to be able to fight racism more effectively.

“If we were given those capabilities, we would end this in a matter of months,” he said. AFP, REUTERS