Vinícius Júnior is completely fed up with the racism he has been confronted with in LaLiga this season. As proof, the Real Madrid attacker has posted a video compilation on Instagram. In this, the Brazilian once again shows that he had to deal with racism in five away games this season. The incident surrounding Vinícius, who was racially abused on Sunday evening during the match between Valencia and Real Madrid (1-0), has caused quite a stir.
“Every away game there is an unpleasant surprise,” writes Vinicius in the video compilation on Instagram. “And there were a lot of them this season. Death threats, a hung doll, racist chants and jungle noises. It’s all recorded. Incidents, they say. But they are not incidents. It happens all the time and it has spread to several Spanish cities.”
The Real Madrid striker wonders what else is needed to punish those who racially abuse him and to impose sanctions on clubs. “Why don’t the sponsors raise this with LaLiga? Why don’t the television channels show this barbarity? The problem is getting worse and worse. The proof is in the video compilation. Now I ask you: how many of these racists have their name and picture exposed on websites? I answer to make it easier: zero. Not a single racist has publicly apologized. This is not football, this is inhumane.”
Christ statue in Rio remains dark
The world-famous statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro remained unlit for an hour on Monday evening in solidarity with Vinícius Júnior over the racism incident during the match against Valencia. The attacker announced via social media that the gesture in his native country moved him. During the game in Mestalla, there was a group of fans who constantly insulted Vinícius through a megaphone. Later in the match, the Brazilian winger also got involved in a scuffle and was shown a red card.
The day after the hectic match in Valencia, Vinícius reported on his social channels. “It wasn’t the first time, nor the second, nor the third. Racism is normal in LaLiga. The teams think it’s normal, the association too and the opponents encourage it. I’m very sorry. The league that once belonged to Ronaldinho , Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi belongs to racists today.”
Those words then went down the wrong way with Javier Tebas. The boss of LaLiga, the organization that organizes the competition, does not believe that there is systematic racism. “It is unfair to say that Spain and LaLiga are racist. We fight racism in the toughest way and have made nine reports of racism this season, eight of them against Vinícius. We identify the idiots responsible and hand over all reports to the Racism is an extremely rare occurrence in our league and we want to eliminate it, but we must not allow the league’s reputation to be tarnished.”
Four arrests
The racism incident during the duel with Valencia led to enormous outrage at home and abroad. The Spanish police took action on Tuesday and arrested four people for hanging a doll wearing a shirt of Real Madrid striker Vinícius Júnior at the end of January. The arrests relate to a previous incident. At the time, supporters of Atlético Madrid had hung a doll with a shirt from Vinícius on a bridge at Valdebebas, the training complex of Real Madrid. Both Atlético and Real subsequently expressed their disgust at the scene in an official statement.
Atlético fans shock towards derby by hanging Vinícius Júnior doll
Supporters of the hard core of Atlético showed their worst at the end of January.