I struggle to find any justified excuse for the abuse suffered by the Real Madrid star Vinicius junior and the way in which a certain high-up in the Spanish La Liga has reacted.
The racist nature of chants by a large group of local fans suffered by the young Brazilian during Real Madrid’s game against Valencia last Sunday was only too evident. So was the emotional impact it had on the player who was red carded by the referee after being caught up in a tussle provoked by a Valencian player.
The sense of bigotry and injustice was amplified in the aftermath of the match after Vinicius tweeted that La Liga ‘belonged to racists’ and in Brazil , ‘Spain is known as a country of racists,’ fuelling a formal diplomatic protest by President Lula.
At this point, it is worth remembering that far from an isolated one-off incident , this was the lates La Liga match in which Vinicius , among the best players in the world currently , has suffered racist abuse from opposing fans -the catalogue of infamy during this season extending to fans of other major clubs such as Atletico de Madrid, Mallorca, and FC Barcelona.
After listing the instances of abuse he has suffered this season on his social media post on Monday , Vinicius raised some disturbing questions about the lack of integrity affecting key stake holders in the big business and political machine that is Spanish football , and the urgent need for action.
“What is missing to criminalize these people? And punish the clubs sportively? Why don’t the sponsors charge La Liga? Don’t the televisions bother to broadcast this barbarity every weekend?” Vinicius ased .
So what was the response of the president of La Liga, Javier Tebas? “Before you criticise and slander La Liga, you need to inform yourself properly,” Tebas tweeted back.
Rather than thinking it might be at least civil to issue an apology, Tebas accused Vinicius of not knowing what he was talking about, being out of order in other words. Tebas, let us not forget, is a well-known supporter of VOX, a political party that employs a populist confrontational rhetoric in defence of what it claims are traditional Spanish values and is the true Spanish nation against internal and external threats, secessionists and immigrants respectively. It promises, à la Trump, to “make Spain great again”, but harking back to its imperialist and Francoist past.
Tebas’s attitude on race seems at odds with the civic democratic society Spain should aspire to , quite apart from devaluing the reputation of Spanish football which has given fans worldwide so much joy over many years, with Brazilian players among the most admired. I suspect Vinicius may be on his way to the Premier League before long.
Thankfully Tebas seems to have badly miscalculated the scale of outrage that the Vinicius saga has provoked, from the noble act of solidarity with the Brazilian demonstrated by Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti and fellow team players (Real Madrid as a club have lodged hate crime complaint with Spanish prosecutors) but also other more widely in the football world not least among English players who have been prominent in the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Among widely respected figures who have supported Vinicius is Liverpool’s German manager Jurgen Klopp,who , prior to his club’s match against Real Madrid in February, was asked by a journalist whether the Brazilian brought abuse upon himself by sometimes provoking the opposition by the way he played.
Klopp replied: “That he is doing something on the pitch that could cause it? There is nothing in the world that could justify that. Imagine if I say yes, that would be completely insane.”
Indeed it would be insane although not everyone in Spain seems to agree not least at a time when football like so much else in the country in the run-up to local elections, has become a matter of divisive and bitter power politics rather than the common good.
I wonder of Mr Tebas really understands what racism is. His handling of Vinicius suggest he should be disqualified from any position of authority although this not what his friends in Vox think.
If it is to be part of a civic Society , it not too late for the Spanish La Liga to redeem itself with an unequivocal anti-racist policy in words and deeds.
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