SPANISH POLICE DETAIN FOUR PEOPLE OVER THE HANGING OF A VINICIUS JR. EFFIGY IN JANUARY AS UPROAR OVER RACISM IN SPAIN CONTINUES
Spanish police confirmed on Tuesday that four people suspected of hanging an effigy of Vinicius Jr. from a bridge in Madrid in January have since been arrested. An effigy of Vinicius Jr. was hanged by its neck off a bridge near Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground on January 26th, hours before Real played derby rivals Atletico Madrid in the quarter finals of the Copa del Rey. The figure was hung under a banner that read: “Madrid hates Real”.
The arrests on Tuesday morning come just days after the 22-year-old Real Madrid superstar was racially abused during the team’s La Liga game on Sunday against Valencia CF at the Mestalla Stadium in Valencia. The game on Sunday was stopped midway through the second half after Vinicius Jr. identified a fan in the crowd behind the Valencia goal as having racially abused him.
After discussions between Vinicius, referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea and Real Madrid head coach Carlo Ancelotti, the game went on with the fans being warned via the stadium’s public address system about racist abuse. The game would, in injury time, come to a halt after a clash between Valencia substitute forward Hugo Duro and Vinicius, an incident that would see Vinicius shown the first straight red card of his career.
Real Madrid officially lodged a hate crime complaint with Spanish prosecutors on Monday and blatantly condemned the events on Sunday at the Mestalla. A statement from the club read: “Real Madrid expresses its outright rejection and condemns the events that occurred yesterday involving our player Vinicius Junior. These events constitute a direct attack on the coexistence model of our social and democratic state of law.”
“Real Madrid considers that such attacks also constitute a hate crime, and therefore it has filed the relevant complaint with the state prosecutor’s office, specifically the prosecutor’s office against hate crimes and discrimination, so that the facts can be investigated and responsibilities determined.”
Madrid president Florentino Perez said he met with Vinicius on Monday in a show of support and informed him that the club will “exhaust all avenues” as they deal with this situation.
Vinicius followed up with a statement on social media after the game on Sunday saying that “racism is normal in La Liga” and claimed that “in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists.” This incident is not the first time that Vinicius, who has faced monkey chants and had bananas thrown at him in several away stadiums across the country this season, has been racially abused.
Vinicius said via a video cataloging incidents of racial abuses he has been subjected to during his time in Spain, “Every ground away from home is an unpleasant surprise. And there were many this season. Death wishes, hanged doll, many criminal screams… all registered. But the speech always falls on “isolated cases”, “a fan’. No, these are not isolated cases. They are continuous episodes spread across several cities in Spain.”
“Now I ask: how many of these racists had names and photos exposed on websites? I answer to make it easier: zero. None to tell a sad story or make those fake public apologies. What is missing to criminalize these people? And punish clubs accordingly? Why don’t sponsors charge La Liga? Don’t televisions bother to broadcast this barbarity every weekend?”
“The problem is very serious and communications no longer work. Not blaming me to justify criminal acts either. You are not football. You are inhuman.”
Head of Spain’s national football federation RFEF, Luis Rubiales, said on Monday that “Spain has a problem with racism.” Rubiales said, “This has gone beyond football and this is not the first time. First of all, we’ve got to admit that we have a problem. A problem of behavior, of education, of racism, and if only one fan or any group of fans insults someone for their sexual orientation or the color of their skin, for their religion, then we do have a serious problem that stains an entire team, all fans and this entire country.”
Madrid followed Rubiales’ comments on Monday with a statement that criticized the RFEF president, saying “he has not allowed any decision to be taken, in accordance with FIFA protocols, to prevent the situation.”
La Liga president Javier Tebas, however, was not as sympathetic to Vinicius’ situation as Rubiales. Responding to the Madrid player on social media, he said, “Neither Spain nor La Liga are racist. It is very unfair to say that. At La Liga, we denounce and tackle racism with all the toughness within our powers. This season, racist insults have been reported nine times. Eight of them have been for insults against Vini. We always identify these maniacs and file a complaint with the relevant bodies. It doesn’t matter how few they are, we are always relentless.”
Valencia released a statement on Monday afternoon promising to ban fans who made racist gestures to Vinicius Jr. from the Mestalla for life, and condemned all racial abuse, saying it did not correspond to the values of the club and that of its fans.
“From the moment of the events, all the available recordings are being analyzed,” the statement read. “[And we are] working with the utmost speed to clarify what happened in order to act quickly and forcefully. The club has already opened a disciplinary file, and it will apply the utmost severity against the fans who are involved by expelling them from the stadium for life and collaborating with the Police and the competent authorities to clarify what happened.”
“The Club strongly condemns this type of behavior, which has no place in football and society and which do not correspond to the values of Valencia CF and its fans. In this way, we reaffirm our position against racism by acting with the same forcefulness as in 2019, when an amateur who made fascist gestures and greetings to Arsenal fans in the UEFA Europa League match was expelled for life.”
The RFEF announced following Sunday’s situation at the Mestalla that 6 VAR referees, including in charge VAR referee Iglesias Villanueva had been sacked. Villanueva was fired on the grounds that he only showed on-field referee Bengoetxea frames of Vinicius Jr. ‘s reaction and did not show frames of Hugo Duro putting Vinicius in a chokehold.
Meanwhile, Barcelona head coach Xavi Hernandez said on Monday that the issue transcends club rivalries and that it is time for games to be stopped if there are incidents of racism in stadiums.
“It is sad and lamentable that these incidents still happen in 2023,” said Xavi. “We must condemn any act of racism against any player and at any ground, beyond club allegiances. The shirt doesn’t matter. Vinicius is a person before a footballer. We have to defend everyone regardless of their club colors. No one should have to put up with these insults…”
“This is a message for the president of the league and of the federation. If there are insults, we must stop games. Enough is enough. I have to take advantage of my position as Barca coach and say it’s the moment to say enough, stop the games.”
Vinicius Jr. was a notable absentee from Real Madrid training on Tuesday morning as the club prepared for their home game this weekend against Rayo Vallecano.
-Maher Abucheri
Twitter: @pabloikonyero
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.