Spanish football admits it has a racism problem

SPANISH soccer has a racism problem, football federation chief Luis Rubiales said yesterday, after Real Madrid lodged a complaint following alleged insults hurled at their Brazilian star Vinicius Jr.

La Liga is under pressure to do more to combat racism after the Brazilian president, Fifa and fellow stars such as Kylian Mbappe voiced support for Vinicius, even as La Liga president Javier Tebas wrote on Twitter that it is doing enough and Vinicius should inform himself “before you criticise and slander La Liga”.

“The first thing is to recognise that we have a problem in our country,” Rubiales said at a press conference in Madrid yesterday. “It is a serious problem that also stains an entire team, an entire fan base, an entire club, an entire country.”

A match at the Mestalla Stadium in Valencia was stopped for 10 minutes after the 22-year-old forward, Real’s second top scorer this season (23) behind Karim Benzema (29), pointed out fans who were allegedly hurling racist comments at him.

Verified videos posted on social media showed hundreds of Valencia fans singing “Vinicius is a monkey” as the Real bus arrived at the stadium before the match.

“I am sorry for those Spaniards who disagree but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists,” Vinicius wrote on Twitter after the game.

Rubiales criticised Tebas’ comments as “irresponsible behaviour.”

“Probably Vinicius is more right than we think and we all need to do more about racism,” Rubiales said.

Real said yesterday they had lodged a hate crime complaint following the incident in Valencia. It is the 10th episode of alleged racism against Vinicius that has been reported to prosecutors this season, according to La Liga.

Spanish prosecutors confirmed yesterday they have opened an investigation with the the prosecutor’s office in Valencia investigating the incident as a possible “hate crime”.

Spanish police are also investigating a possible hate crime against Vinicius after a mannequin wearing his number 20 shirt was hung from a bridge outside Real’s training ground in January ahead of the club’s derby match with Atletico Madrid.

Prosecutors dropped a complaint filed for racist chants aimed at the player in September during another game against Atletico. The prosecutor archived the case because the chants of “monkey” were only said a couple of times and

“only lasted a few seconds”, highlighting how Spain’s penal code makes it difficult to prosecute racist incidents at football games.

Spanish prosecutors officially investigated just three cases of racist acts during the 2021/22 season, according to the interior ministry. Under current rules, people found guilty of racist behaviour can be fined up to €4 000 and banned from stadiums for a year. | Reuters