Vinicius Jr latest news: Four arrested for racism over effigy of Real Madrid star

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti said on Tuesday he expected Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr to remain at the Spanish club despite facing racist abuse in several LaLiga matches.

“I don’t think (he will leave Spain), because he loves football and he loves Real Madrid. His love for the club is very big and he wants to make his career here,” Ancelotti told a news conference.

He said Vinicius was “very sad” yet overwhelmed by the “unconditional support” he was receiving “even from rivals.”

“He is the victim of what’s going on. Sometimes I see people putting the blame on him, saying that he provokes, about his attitude… no!” he said, adding that the fact that the insults had started as soon as the club bus arrived at the stadium invalidated arguments that Vinicius had provoked the fans.

Seven people were detained by Spanish police earlier on Tuesday, accused of different hate crimes against Vinicius Jr, including racist slurs allegedly hurled at the Brazilian during Sunday’s match at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium.

The arrests come a day after football federation chief Luis Rubiales said Spanish soccer has a racism problem, the 10th complaint filed by Real Madrid for racist abuse against Vinicius in Spain this season.

Ancelotti urged authorities to take more effective actions against racism and hate speech in soccer and said the protocols in place to deal with the issue were obsolete.

“I want actions! And nothing has been done yet.”

Italian soccer will take a “zero tolerance” approach to racist fans, using technology to help identify offenders and ban them from stadiums, the head of Serie A said on Tuesday.

The issue of racist abuse of players is high on the agenda in European soccer after Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr was targeted during a weekend match against Valencia in Spain.

“There are in stadiums, as in society, a percentage of racist people,” Serie A chief executive Luigi De Siervo told reporters.

“Today with technology and stadium microphones they can be heard and we can punish them. It’s a battle, like a tumour you have to systematically remove it even if it has recurrences,” he added.

De Siervo noted that Italy had banned around 170 Juventus fans after they hurled abuse at Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku during an Italian Cup semi-final last month, calling it an example of the “path to zero tolerance” for racists.

The Italian government will invest 10 million euros ($11 million) to promote Serie A abroad, using the sponsorship to support its own “Made in Italy” export campaign, De Siervo told reporters at the briefing.

Serie A has slipped behind the English Premier League and Spain’s La Liga in terms of earnings power, and Italian soccer has struggled with fan violence and other scandals.

Juventus, the most successful club in Italian soccer, were docked 10 points on Monday as part of one of the inquiries into the club’s accounting.

But De Siervo said that investment by overseas funds in recent years showed that Serie A was on the way back, with the presence of Italian clubs in the three major European finals this season underscoring the recovery.

He said the Juventus case, relating to the accounting of transfers, showed Italy was tackling an industry-wide issue.

“We are the only mature country that looks at the problem and tries to solve it for the future,” he said.

Police detained seven men on Tuesday over separate alleged racist incidents against Real Madrid football player Vinicius Jr as Spain’s main soccer league urged changes to Spanish law that would enable it to take steps to curb racism in stadiums.

A hate crime investigation was opened after an inflatable effigy dressed in the No. 20 jersey of winger Vinicius Jr was hung from a bridge in front of the club’s training grounds. Alongside it was a 16m (17.5-yard) red and white banner – the colours of rival team Atletico Madrid – that read “Madrid hates Real”.

Four men were arrested in Madrid, police said, three of whom were members of “a radical group of fans of a Madrid club”, who were previously flagged during matches as “high risk” to help curb violence during games.

Three men were also arrested in Valencia for racist conduct aimed at Vinicius in a match between Valencia and Real Madrid, police said on Twitter.

The arrests come a day after football federation chief Luis Rubiales said Spanish soccer has a racism problem, following a race-crime complaint lodged by Real Madrid.

After slurs were aimed at Vinicius Jr during a Spanish league match on Sunday, Vinicius Jr, in a social media post, called the racist abuse “inhuman” and asked sponsors and broadcasters to hold LaLiga accountable.

Some of the responses here provided by Carlo Ancelotti in his press conference:

“Condemning acts of racism isn’t enough. We have been condemning acts of racism for years.”

“Maybe in the future I’ll have to take the responsibility of taking the player and the team off the pitch, but it shouldn’t be my responsibility.”

“Apart from the racism, which is the most serious, it seems that there is a culture of insulting. I agree with Xavi, who I thought was exemplary with his comments. Why do we think the culture of insulting is okay in football? In the post-match press conference, they told me that they weren’t chanting ‘monkey’ (‘mono’) at Vinícius and that they were only chanting ‘silly’ (‘tonto’). Why is that even okay? That’s not a racial insult, but it’s also an insult. Why should we get used to insults? That has to stop. We’re tired of being insulted every day. It happens to Xavi. It happens to Vinícius, where there is more racism. It happens to many others. They say ‘son of a b***h’, they say ‘f***ot’, they say ‘I hope your parents die’. It’s not war, it’s sport. We have a great opportunity to stop this. The FIFA president was already very clear and I hope the Spanish federation, LaLiga and the referees can be clear too.”

Paul Pogba has posted to social media to offer his support to Vinicius Jr and says “nothing has changed” in the fight against racism.

“Who protects us? It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last either. But we must never let that pass again. We have so many examples and I think we all agree today that nothing has changed since then.

“Bananas, animal noises, songs against us? It’s mental illness and I think we all agree that neither ads nor slogans will change these people. If I’ve learned one thing this year, it’s that when someone has a black heart, nothing and no one can change that. If the institutions don’t want to find a real solution, let’s try to do it by ourselves, for ourselves.”

Vinicius Jr replied to LaLiga president Javier Tebas to give him absolutely no possible doubt how he feels about him, after Tebas tried to tell Vini his anger was misplaced:

“As much as you talk and pretend not to read, the image of your league is shaken. See the responses to your posts and have a surprise.

“Omitting yourself [from blame] only makes you equal to racists.

“I’m not your friend to talk about racism. I want actions and punishments. Hashtag doesn’t move me.

The match had been halted for 10 minutes in the second half as Vincius pointed out to the referee which fans had racially abused him. The Brazilian was later red-carded in injury time after becoming involved in a brawl with Valencia players that saw him raise his hands to the face of Hugo Duro, although he also appeared to be put in a headlock by the Valencia forward.

Covering the game for LaLiga TV, co-commentator Toni Padilla said that while it’s important to stand against racism, Vinicius should not be free from blame for the sending off as he’s “not a saint” and often provokes both the opposition and their fans.

“It’s the worst that could happen,” said Padilla as Vinicius was shown red. “Because the player that hits out and you say ‘that’s a red card always’ is also the player that suffered some verbal abuse.

“We should stand with Vini Jr if he suffered racial abuse but it’s never justified that he hits Hugo Duro. It’s Vini’s mistake. It’s not a question of who’s the bad one. Look at Vini Jr [as he walks off the pitch gesturing to the Valencia fans] – you are going to second division.

“We should stand against racism always but we should also say that Vini Jr is not an angel, he’s not perfect. Sometimes he provokes the other teams. Every time he’s suffering verbal abuse, we should stand against racism and we should stand with Vini Jr. But also we cannot say he’s a saint.”

Running somewhat contrary to the rest of the planet, Valencian newspaper Superdeporte offers the following:

“There’s a campaign from Madrid in a season where Valencia and their fans have already been the victims of referees and extremely unjust decisions and they want respect for the Mestalla. Vinicius responded with another lack of respect. The club requires the maximum respect for its fans for their exemplary behaviour on Sunday in the Mestalla.”

Continuing, the article by Andres Garcia says: “At the same time, [the club] condones energetically the Valencia fans who shouted racist insults to Vinicius from one of the stadium stands. They are perfectly compatible, which the Madrid-based media don’t want to understand.”

Former Man City and England defender Micah Richards has labelled LaLiga boss Javier Tebas “embarrassing” for his attempts to portray Vinicius Jr as being in the wrong after he criticised the league over its lack of action regarding incidents of racism.

Replying to the Real Madrid forward saying “in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists” on social media, Tebas – president of Spain’s top flight – responded with a tweet of his own saying “before criticising LaLiga, you need to be well-informed yourself, Vinicius. Don’t let yourself manipulate and make sure you understand properly…the work we are doing together.”

But Richards says this deflection merely highlights the problem people suffering racist abuse have to deal with, including being told they are aiming their anger in the wrong direction.

“Javier [Tebas] has tried to make himself the victim in all this, it’s absolutely embarrassing what he has come out with in his statement,” Richards told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club.

“It makes my blood boil and that is part of the problem. It’s not just a football issue, it’s a life that people go through every single day.

“People don’t care enough and that is the problem. If people cared they would do something about it.

“It’s not about taking the knee or wearing Kick it Out shirts because it’s not working. I’m tired of having to talk about the same things that happens over and over again. We have spoken enough. The people who need to sort themselves out are the ones who are being racist. Until harsher punishments are delivered it’s always going to be the same.

“If Javier thinks like that, what chance do we have?”

Annexed to their statement, LaLiga have also included details of no fewer than 13 cases referred to Spanish courts and their current status – nine of them involving Vinicius Jr.

The other players to have received racist abuse are Inaki Williams, Nico Williams (both Athletic Club), Samu Chukwueze (Villarreal) and Carlos Akapo (then Cadiz).

Theses cases range from January 2020 to the present day and they are in varying stages of judicial process, with the case of Inaki Williams awaiting a trial date for example and Akapo set to testify “in the near future”.