Mallorca, Valladolid, television – there are few places in Spain where Vinicius Junior has not been racially insulted. On Twitter, the Real Madrid professional denounces that the Spanish league is idly watching the failures. The boss of La Liga does not let this accusation sit.
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 more,” the 22-year-old black footballer wrote on Twitter. League boss Javier Tebas immediately rejected the accusation of inactivity. The league has been fighting racism for years, he commented on Twitter addressed 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 Brazilian striker was last insulted at Real Madrid’s away game in Valladolid last Friday. In several recordings from the Zorrilla stadium, fans can be heard calling him “son of a bitch” and throwing an object at him, which Vinicius Junior kicks back with his foot. Real won the game 2-0.
The Brazilian is also regularly insulted in stadiums as “Mono”, Spanish for monkey. In September, an official on the popular TV sports program “El Chiringuito” even called him a “monkey”. In March, at Real’s away game in Mallorca, fans shouted at him that he should go “pick bananas”. They also made “Uh Uh Uh” monkey sounds together.
The clubs and the Spanish league regularly castigate such insults, but that 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 racist 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.