The embattled La Liga president repeats racist slurs during a press conference when discussing the racist abuse of Real Madrid star Vincius Jr.

[ad_1]

CNN

Embattled La Liga president Javier Tebas repeated a racist slur used by fans towards Real Madrid star Vincius Jr. when discussing the incident at a press conference on Thursday.

Tebas was speaking to the media in the days after Vincius suffered persistent racist abuse from some Valencia fans during a match at the Mestalla stadium.

Were very aware and very focused not only in the fight against racism in the fact that Vincius is the subject of insults. For what? Because he’s a great player, Tebas told reporters.

Great players like Cristiano Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi are the ones who received the most homophobic insults in one case and intellectual disability in the other. For what? Because they are great players, Tebas continued.

If a fan gets angry because Vini is very good, instead of saying f**king Black, say, like the king of Spain [Juan Carlos I] said [then Venezuela president Hugo] Chvez in his time [2007]: Why don’t you shut up?

Alberto Saiz/AP

Vincius in the game against Valencia.

According to the match officials’ report of Valencia’s 1-0 win over Madrid on Sunday, a fan had shouted monkey, monkey at Vincius during the second half.

Video footage from the DAZN Espaa match also shows the Real Madrid star was the victim of various other racial slurs throughout the match, including the repeated insult by Tebas during Thursday’s press conference.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has ordered a five-game partial stadium ban at Valencias Mestalla Stadium and a 45,000 (approximately $48,489) fine for the incident.

Fans and players around the world showed their support for Vincius during the week through social media posts, gestures and banners before games.

After RFEF president Luis Rubiales admitted earlier in the week that Spain has a problem with racism, Tebas expressed concern about the situation regarding racist abuse in Spanish football.

If I wasn’t worried, I’d be crazy, right? he said. Of course, I’m worried and I’m going to work, we’re going to work to find a solution to this image problem because football is Spain is not racist, Spanish football is not racist.

LaLiga has worked and will continue to work to fight against these behaviors, racist insults, homophobic, whatever within our stadiums. But obviously, it worries me and, obviously, we have to work on it.

Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images

A banner at the Santiago Bernabu stadium showing ‘We are all Vincius, enough is enough’ ahead of Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday.

Vincius has been racially abused from the stands on 10 occasions in La Liga matches over the past two seasons, and seven people were arrested on Tuesday in connection with incidents of racist abuse directed at the Madrid star this season.

Spanish police say four young men were arrested for allegedly hanging an effigy of Vincius from a bridge in Madrid in January, while three others were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the racist slurs aimed at the Brazilian during the Sunday’s game against Valencia.

Both incidents are being treated as hate crimes.

The Spanish league has been criticized for failing to adequately deal with racist abuse in stadiums. In a statement on Tuesday, La Liga said it was formally requesting to be granted sanctioning powers to better tackle racism in Spanish football.

At present, LaLiga says it cannot punish clubs or fans for incidents of racist abuse and can only forward any reports of abuse to RFEF committees or regional prosecutors, who treat as legal matters before sporting sanctions are imposed.

Twitter

A doll with Vincius’ shirt hangs from a bridge near Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground ahead of a Copa del Rey derby against Atltico Madrid in January.

In terms of sanctions as a sanctioning body in Spain, we have never had any, because that is what the National Sports Law says, including the new National Sports Law and the Disciplinary Regulation of the sport that deducts points does not exist. [as a punishment for racist incidents]only when there are bad queues.

Only in these cases, not for racist incidents. [Guidelines for racist incidents] like those that exist for example in the English Premier League, where you can withdraw points [for racist abuse].

In Spain the sport discipline regulated by the state exists, so we cannot do it [currently]. Would it be good if we started looking at changing this so that there could be point deductions? I think so.

During his Q&A session, Tebas was asked if LaLiga employed black staff members, responding that the organization does not count the number of black people working for the organization, because if we count them, then that would be [looked upon as being] bad.

But as I travel a lot, in Angola we have a black employee with us. Like I said, I don’t count them. I saw black people in the digital department, he said.

Like I said, I don’t count them. Yes, yes, there are but we do not count them one by one. But the question is unusual. Do I know the statistics of how much? I know him by sex. How many blacks do we have? Well, I don’t know, but we also have Asians working for us. If I started counting black people, you’d call me a racist.

[ad_2]