LaLiga take legal action over Vinicius’ racial slurs

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6:13 AM ET

Alex Kirkland

Rodrigo Faez

LaLiga has officially reported racial slurs aimed at Vinicius Junior during Real Madrid’s game against Real Valladolid on Friday to a local court, the league announced on Tuesday.

Videos posted on social media showed the Brazilian winger being racially abused by Valladolid fans as he walked around the edge of the pitch after being substituted late in the second half during a Madrid’s 2-0 victory.

Vinicius, 22, later criticized La Liga’s moves to tackle racism, saying the league ‘continues to do nothing’ – a charge that La Liga president Javier Tebas called ‘unfortunate’ and “unfair”.

The winger has spoken out against racist abuse three times since joining Madrid in July 2018 – at Barcelona in October 2021, at Mallorca in March 2022 and at Atletico Madrid last September. LaLiga filed formal complaints each time, but prosecutors repeatedly decided not to pursue a case.

Vinicius Junior has slammed LaLiga’s response to racism from fans. Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images

“La Liga has lodged official complaints with the competent judicial, administrative and sporting bodies for the racist insults against the player Vinicius Junior during the match between Real Valladolid and Real Madrid on the last day,” the league said in a statement. statement on Tuesday.

“A criminal complaint for hate crimes has been filed with the Court of Valladolid, accompanied by the audiovisual evidence collected during the investigation, which was carried out with sounds and images published on open sources.

“At the same time, as has been the case for several seasons, a complaint has been lodged with the RFEF Competitions Commission and the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport .”

After the incident outside the Metropolitano stadium ahead of the Madrid derby – when Atletico fans were filmed leading racist chants at Vinicius – prosecutors found that the chants, while ‘unpleasant’ and “disrespectful”, had “lasted only a few seconds” and did not constitute a crime.

Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti called for ‘zero tolerance’ for racism during his press conference on Monday, calling it a ‘cultural problem in society’ but refused to criticize La Liga’s response.

Vinicius was rested for Madrid’s Copa del Rey round of 16 at Cacereno on Tuesday along with six other first-team players.

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