Spanish football is facing a major issue with racism.
Vinicius Jr alone has been the target of alleged racial abuse five times this season. According to Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague, “not one person in Spain has been sentenced or punished for a racist incident related to football”.
Have we now reached a “turning point” though?
Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger has repeatedly called for the authorities to clamp down, with Mallorca fans at least the third group of supporters this season to racially abuse the 22-year-old.
In September he was compared to a monkey on Spanish TV. Last month an effigy was hung from a motorway bridge near Real’s training ground.
La Liga says it frequently passes racism cases onto local public prosecutors – but cannot take action itself.
Why has nobody been punished?
Unlike other football authorities, La Liga says it cannot dish out punishments for racism from fans on its own.
In England, the Premier League can ban anyone found to have behaved in a discriminatory or abusive way.
Uefa and Fifa both punish teams for racial abuse from their fans – even if many think their punishments do not go far enough.
Spanish sides Atletico Madrid – with a section of their ground closed – and Sevilla – with a 5,000 euros fine – were both punished by Uefa after Champions League games against Manchester City last year.
But all La Liga can do is file reports to various legal bodies – and none have ever ended in a prosecution.
“Surely there must be mechanisms within football – either La Liga or the Spanish FA – to say if the crowd misbehaves and the officials hear this there can be a punishment, the game can be abandoned, clubs can be fined,” said Raphael Honigstein on the BBC Euro Leagues podcast.
“There must be a sporting mechanism to deal with this. I don’t understand how La Liga say we referred them to the public prosecutors but unfortunately we didn’t hear anything so that’s all we can do. It doesn’t seem a very satisfactory answer.”
Balague said: “I do believe La Liga when they say they can’t do any more because it’s not in their realms, they haven’t got the authority to do it. But the other authorities should change their tune.
“La Liga reports those insults to the public prosecutors office and that can take it into a civil court case. They can also report it to the state commission against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance.
“They can go to the competition committee as well. That depends on the federation. There hasn’t been any powerful steps from the competition committee to tackle this.
“The rules are very clear, if they [authorities] have enough evidence they can go and punish somebody but in a lot of cases they say they don’t know who did it, they don’t have enough information, enough evidence so shelf the cases.”
La Liga has recently highlighted six cases and their latest legal status…
- Inaki Wiliams: Espanyol fans shouting racial abuse at the Athletic Bilbao player in January 2020 has been transferred from a Catalan court to the Public Prosecutor’s Office and La Liga (as the accusing party) so that they can request the opening of a trial.
- Nico Williams: Inaki’s brother, and Athletic team-mate, Nico was racially abused by a Real Betis fan in March 2022. This case was closed because after studying the fan’s social media accounts they decided “he is not a person who intends to encourage racism”.
- Vinicius Jr (1): La Liga filed a complaint with the Barcelona Public Prosecutor’s Office for Hate Crimes after the October 2021 Clasico. The complaint was dropped “as the perpetrators of the acts have not been identified”.
- Vinicius Jr (2): A complaint against Mallorca fans in March 2022 – separate to the newest claim – was closed because it was ruled to lack “the public criminal dimension that is being claimed”.
- Vinicius Jr (3): Racist chants against Vinicius Jr by Atletico Madrid fans in September 2022 were reported. The Madrid public prosecutor office described wider racist chanting as disagreeable, inappropriate and disrespectful but also said it only lasted a few seconds and took place in a game involving maximum rivalry.
- Carlos Akapo: Akapo, then at Cadiz, suffered racist abuse in a game against Granada in February 2022. The club identified the fan, who turned himself into the police. It is still being investigated by the Granada Public Prosecutor’s Office for Hate Crimes a year later.
“Prosecutors have to do better,” said European football journalist Julien Laurens. “It’s like they try to find excuses to let people off. It’s not enough.”
Balague added: “If feels like something is changing because this week a procedure has started against fans by their own club. Valladolid said this is related to racist insults to Vinicius and told 10 fans that they will be banned.
“But the club describe these as isolated cases and also add it doesn’t mean the fans are racist. That is deep down the problem.”
Why always Vinicius Jr?
There are plenty of instances of racism in Spanish football but so many seem to centre around Vinicius, one of La Liga’s best players.
He has scored 32 goals and made 17 assists in 137 La Liga appearances, helping Real Madrid win the league title twice and Champions League once.
“Vinicius is the victim of something that I don’t understand. It must be solved,” said his boss Carlo Ancelotti.
“It seems that the problem is Vinicius, and it is not like that.”
A panellist on a Spanish football show earlier this season compared his goal celebrations to a monkey. Vinicius released a video statement in response to the “xenophobic and racist” insult, saying he “won’t stop dancing” and “the happiness of a black Brazilian being successful in Europe bothers” many people.
On the latest incidents, Laurens said: “This has to be a turning point. I don’t remember any other players in the modern era who have been targeted as much as Vini on the pitch by defenders but more importantly off the pitch by opposition fans. It’s disgusting.”
Balague said: “The media have not treated the whole thing seriously. They have made it part of a debate, like ‘is Vinicius to blame for what is happening to him? Is his dribbling and provocation causing the rise of racist incidents in stadiums?’ That is not the debate that should be happening.
“Those who say it’s down to Vinicius, they look at stats and say look he hasn’t scored in nine games, he plays badly when he’s provoked and all the players and fans are doing is provoking him to get a lesser version of Vinicius.
“What an awful thing to say – saying everything is allowed for that to happen, including racial insults.”
Spain’s societal issue
Racism in football is far from isolated though – and is always a branch of the racism which exists in society.
“Apart from the work La Liga is doing I don’t think there is a real interest from anyone to fight against this open and clearly. Socially it doesn’t feel like an urgent thing to do,” said Balague, who is Spanish.
“There’s not a feeling on the streets of Spain this is an urgent matter. Many blame Vinicius for what’s happening.
“Why don’t sports media [in Spain] take this seriously? Generally because football media don’t see football and sport a serious matter. It’s a cartoonish thing you can debate.
“You defend one team. If you’re a Real Madrid journalist you go against Barcelona. The debates are really extreme. There is no intention of taking this out of the sports arena and study this properly.
“In the UK it is a daily debate and discussion – at some point on radio or television – it’s there. It doesn’t happen in Spain or Italy.
“No country is perfect. It’s a daily fight that will be fought forever. It feels like discrimination is ever-present. I’d like us to take a lot of learning from what has happened in the UK and what is happening in France.”
Laurens said: “It has to be a joint effort. It has to be La Liga and the government, it has to go through education. Go to school and educate children about racism and what it is to have a different skin colour. All of that has to be there for the next generation not to repeat what we see now.”
