The Competition Board, consisting of the members of the RFEF, the LaLiga institution and the Spanish government’s Supreme Council of Sports, sentenced the Valencia Club for racist insults to Real Madrid’s Brazilian football player Vinicius, one of the Valencia stands, during the Valencia-Real Madrid match on 21 May.
The Board announced that Valencia will play 5 matches without spectators at the Mestalla Stadium.
On the other hand, while the objection of Real Madrid Club was accepted, the red card given to Vinicius was canceled on the grounds that he elbowed his opponent in the 90+7th minute of the Valencia match.
Although Vinicius had the chance to play in the Rayo Vallecano match, which will be played in Real Madrid’s field on May 24, the Brazilian football player, who did not go to training due to a knee injury, is not expected to be included in the squad.
RFEF had previously announced that it suspended VAR referee Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva of the Valencia-Real Madrid match due to the red card incident.
Racism against Vinicius
The incident, which marked the 35th week of Spanish football, was experienced in the second half of the Valencia-Real Madrid match when Real Madrid’s Brazilian football player Vinicius stopped the game on the grounds that a fan from the Valencia stands had insulted him racially.
After this attempt of Vinicius, who went to the stands and pointed at a fan, referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea, the coaches of both teams and the players were also involved in the incident, then the police officers went to the stands and emptied the section where the supporter was.
After stopping for about 10 minutes and making an announcement in the stadium against racism in football, the game started again.
Vinicius, on the other hand, received a red card after a move he made to his opponent in the 90+7th minute of the match.
The racism incident was condemned by many sports clubs, especially Valencia and Real Madrid, executives of high-level football institutions such as FIFA President Gianni Infantino, and many politicians, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Upon the application of Real Madrid, the prosecutor’s office launched an investigation into the incident as part of a hate crime.
Although the Spanish police detained three supporters, aged 18-21, who were found to have racially insulted Vinicius, they released them as they were not prosecuted yet.