Real Madrid report racist abuse Vinicius Junior suffered at Valencia as a hate crime

foreign

Madrid to have filed a hate crime

complaint with Spanish persecutors

prosecutors I should say sorry after

that forward vinicius Jr who was

racially abused by a supporter during

their match with Valencia last night in

further developments in the past hour

the head of the Spanish Football

Federation says the country has a

problem with racism

well after the incident the player

tweeted this it wasn't the first time

nor the second and all the third a

racism is normal in La Liga the

championship that once belonged to

Ronaldinho Ronaldo Cristiano and Messi

today belongs to racism a beautiful

nation which welcomed me and which I

love but which agreed to export the

image of a racist country to the world

I'm sorry for the Spaniards who don't

agree but today in Brazil Spain is known

as a country of racist and unfortunately

for something that happens each week I

have no defense

hola Liga are collecting images and

information to open an investigation

into the incident since the start of

last season they have filed nine

complaints to authorities for racist

comments directed at the Real Madrid

forward Spanish police are also

investigating a possible hate crime

against him before January's Madrid

Derby now the La Liga president Javier

tabas responded to the situation on

Twitter saying vinicius needed to inform

himself properly before criticizing the

league

this is what he said before criticizing

and insulting La Liga it is necessary

that you inform yourself properly do not

let yourself be manipulated and make

sure you fully understand each other's

competencies and the work we have been

doing together

the rail forward replied to that tweet

saying once again instead of criticizing

racist the president of La Liga appears

to on social media to attack me omitting

yourself only makes you equal to racist

I'm not your friend to talk about racism

I want actions and punishments hashtag

doesn't move me

is the executive director of

anti-discrimination group Fair Network

and he's told us today that there is a

big problem with racism in La Liga the

responsibility as La Liga sees it is not

theirs to take action theirs is to make

complaints and so therefore you don't

have them addressing their own clubs

whose fans are responsible for some of

the charity and then you have the the

response from tebas the response from

the La Liga commentary last night during

the match was that somehow vernisius

himself complained because of the way in

which he dances because of the way in

which he uh sometimes likes to to rile

fans you know this guy is a gold machine

he's probably one of the best players

best young players in Europe right now

um and then to blame him for the racism

that he's being subjected to is is part

of the problem there just isn't the sort

of awareness that we need to see in

Spain there isn't the sort of debate

that we need to see and people like

their best are reinforcing those

stereotypes and those ideas that that

venices himself is to blame which I

think is something that that is quite

crazy really how do you you bring on

racism onto yourself when you are as I

say probably the best young player in

Europe right now you're doing your job

uh and and doing it in a way which

everybody accepts is is quite remarkable

the only people defending him I think at

the moment are his own teammates and his

culture so a very strong statement from

Carlo ancelotti other white players in

the league Asylum are the coaches in the

league are too scared of upsetting their

own fans I mean there's no question that

this country in terms of its football

and issues around racism in particular

is in crisis there's no clear plan of

action as to what they should do there's

no Focus going forward you can talk to

different stakeholders different actors

whether it's La Liga the the fa the

government or the Players Association

and they all have very different

perspectives so sadly I don't see a

solution to this very soon

well joining us now to get the

perspective from Brazil is the South

American football expert Tim Vickery

good afternoon to Tim so look just tell

us what's the reaction there to what

we've seen last night well the reaction

has come right from the top president

Lula has condemned uh what happened in

the Valencia Stadium yesterday you said

it is absolutely unacceptable that this

is still going on in the 21st century uh

Flavio Dino who is Brazil's Justice

Minister has called for consequences not

just condemnation there must be

consequences for what happened yesterday

it's only 12 days ago that Brazil and

Spain signed a joint agreement to fight

xenophobia and racism so the strength of

that agreement is already being put to

the test because what happened yesterday

has been coming and coming and coming

throughout the season this is at least

the ninth time that vinicius Jr has been

racially abused during games because

we're at the business end of the stadium

I think this was uh this was

particularly severe what happened

yesterday and uh there are there seem to

be no consequences and no real

acceptance from the authorities that

there is a necessity for consequences

and as we've just heard vinicius is

being painted disgracefully as the

problem here where this is a a young man

who who seems to be

so unprotected

now even so today yes his Club have come

behind him with what Real Madrid have

filed the complaint they filed today you

wonder why that wasn't done last night

so much of his defense has been left to

as a a friend has just said his

teammates and his coach and word in

Brazil from vinicius Junior's people is

that he is he is just he's just had

enough now he's just extended his

contract until 2027.

um but unless there are a severe action

unless there are severe consequences to

a problem which has clearly been allowed

to grow out of control because there

haven't been consequences this hasn't

been nipped in the bud earlier I think

vinicius will be very unhappy to

continue his career at Real Madrid if

there are not consequences from what

happened yesterday Yeah Tim I have to

agree with you on that um in terms of

what happened yesterday you know Carla

ancelotti revealed that he did actually

speak to venezius and it would appear

that he wanted to continue on the pitch

what do you think do you think walking

off that pitch did you think that kind

of gives gives into the races or do you

think that would have been a really good

move from him well it's not really my

place to to say what a 22 year old black

man receiving that kind of treatment

should have done so don't take advice

from me

um but I but I would say in the

insignificance of my opinion that it

would have been better had he walked off

it would have been better had he said

this is absolutely unacceptable this

totally extrapolates football this is

bigger than football and uh if and I

apologize for the pretension here

if I was in the position of Carlo

ancelotti there the older one would hope

wiser man

I would have said walk off if if if if

if this is too much and it is too much

walk off so I apologize for the

pretension there but that's what I would

have done it's easier I think for me to

put myself in the shoes of ancelotti

than it is of those of vinicius Junior

no I I agree with you wholeheartedly in

that I think a lot of us you know older

heads are thinking angelotti may be an

armor said you know what you don't have

to deal with this bearing in mind the

fact that he is only still 22 and the

fact that he is actually just doing his

job how much outrage is there in terms

of of Brazil out there as a nation at

what they're witnessing do you feel you

know how much are they standing behind

their player plenty although and he had

to go through a fair bit of this in

Brazil and Brazil is now is is by no

means blameless uh in this

um so he's had to fight and this is

something which has given him strength

perhaps a little bit too much strength

yesterday you know perhaps as as we're

saying perhaps it would have been better

had he said no walk off don't want to

deal with this but uh you know he he

hasn't got where he's got

by luck and he hasn't got where he's got

just by Talent either there has been an

extraordinary amount of dedication and

hard work and he had to overcome

Prejudice in in Brazil before he had to

overcome Prejudice in Spain it's much

more public and I think much more

damaging now in Spain because he is so

he he seems so isolated but yes now the

nation stands behind him in with uh and

again if I apologize for taking this

purely back to football terms for a

minute with uh with Neymar's injury

problems and his uncertain future uh I

think now whoever the next Brazil coach

is and it could well be Carlo ancelotti

that's the man that Brazil wants

vinicius Jr has now become uh the the

the leading attacking weapon of the

Brazilian national side so he's very

important to them and the nation now is

is very very proud of of him uh and uh

and absolutely indignant with the fact

that this isn't happening once this has

happened again and again and again and

there have been opportunities to head

this off there have been opportunities

to draw a line and say look this

behavior is unacceptable and we clearly

saw from the uh the quote there from uh

from uh tebus we clearly saw that they

are more inclined to see vinicius as the

problem

and so it isn't being dealt with and

there have been so many opportunities

to deal with this to draw that Line in

the Sand

now we have reached a point where

something must be done and in so many in

a stadium behaving in that way

Spain Spanish football La Liga can no

longer exist in a climate of denial your

dirty disgusting laundry has been

displayed to the world do something

about it that is the message from Brazil

but I think it's the message from

football lovers all over the world yeah

yes I again I can't deny that that you

know that's how I feel this morning

certainly very angry about this

situation myself as a football fan if we

look back in the past Tim you've got the

likes of Ronaldo you've got Roberto

Carlos Ronaldinho uh Rivaldo there's a

huge number of amazing black Brazilian

footballers that have played in Spain

and obviously venezius has said that

Brazilians now consider Spain a racist

country do you think we might just see a

reluctance from players to actually even

go there and ply their trade there

it's the The Lure of Real Madrid and

Barcelona is is difficult to ignore I

look for example at say uh Felipe

coccino when he was at Liverpool and he

wrecked his career going to Barcelona in

a move that you knew couldn't work uh it

was it was a bad move from from the club

and a bad move from the player but if

you're an attacking Brazilian talent and

Barcelona come knocking so hafina more

recently of Leeds going to Barcelona so

that there is an Allure that Allure is

very very strong

clearly what's happening to vinicius

does put a stain on this

and it's a stain which I think has been

building for a long time uh I spoke a

few years ago to unfortunately they're

now late great Colombian Freddie Rincon

who uh played his foot this is we're

going back more than 30 years he was at

Real Madrid and he told me then that the

Real Madrid coach said

you're the best player you're the best

player in the club but I can't play you

I can't play you at the moment and part

of that was a climate of racism against

Freddie Rincon so we're dealing

something here where I'm telling you now

something that Freddie Rincon told me

that happened more than 30 years ago

and we haven't made enough Spain

hasn't made enough progress

uh and with vinicius at Great personal

cost to himself and his own well-being

he is serving as an example to Spain of

the depth of its own problem so the ball

now is in the court of the authorities

in Spain but not just the authorities in

Spain this isn't a top-down thing it's

there with the football fans themselves

so the ball is in the court of the

authorities

of football fans in Spain what are you

gonna do about it

are you going to rise to the challenge

are you going to show

the whole world and the best player in

your own League this kind of behavior is

intolerable or are you just gonna try

and sweep it under the carpet and deny

as you've been doing for too long and

the problem has now become so bad big

that it won't fit any longer underneath

the carpet

do something about it now that I think

is a message which is coming very

strongly from Brazil and as I say from

football fans all over the world and I

would hope from a significant part of

football fans in Spain who are ashamed

and embarrassed by what we're talking

about at the moment worrying though when

we hear comments from tebas today it

doesn't look like they're going to look

internally does it um look you you did

say Brazil have got their own problems

you mentioned that earlier they've also

introduced sanctions this year that

could see teams receive points

deductions if staff or fans

um you know commit racist acts tell us

more about that is that what Spain needs

to now do is follow Brazil's example

perhaps and I would have thought that

there must be a state enclosure after

what happened uh with Valencia because

in that situation you're not talking

about a single fan are you you're

talking there's a collective thing going

on there

um what what the best consequences are

I don't know whether it is because just

fines I think is Never Enough never

enough

uh uh so that I think we can right that

that's part of the mix but it can never

be enough on its own

sporting uh uh kicking out of

competitions or losing points that's a

possibility

but I would have thought again in the

insignificance of my opinion because

there are people far better qualified

than myself to talk about punishments in

in cases of racism I would thought when

you see something which is as collective

as what happened in the inner Valencia

Stadium yesterday some kind of Stadium

closure I think is absolutely necessary

because the consequences need to be felt

by those not just the authorities but by

those who have perpetrated the crime Tim

it's always really good to talk to you

I'm sorry that we have to talk about

this subject though so often thank you

for joining us today we've had a

response from the La Liga president

Xavier Tawas he's responded to vinicius

Jr vinicius Jr responded to his tweet

and now tabas has gone in again with

another tweet this is what he said to

say it's in full bullet points he says

number one neither Spain nor La Liga is

racist and it's unfair to say this

number two at La Liga we report and go

after racism in the strongest possible

way within our remit number three we

have reported nine instances of racist

insults this season eight have been

against Venezia's Junior we always

identify the thugs responsible and take

the complaints all the way to the

relevant bodies who have the power to

Punishment No to punish them no matter

how few they are our efforts are

Relentless and finally he says number

four we cannot allow the reputation of a

competition which is above all a symbol

of unity between communities where over

200 black players from 42 clubs are

welcome with respect and love from fans

every week to be tarnished cases of

racism are an extremely rare occurrence

nine reports he says in Brackets which

we are committed to eliminating

altogether that's Javier tebas

responding to vinicius Jr

thank you