Entity that organizes the Spanish Championship, La Liga filed a complaint about racism with the Basque Country police. On February 26, a fan of Real Sociedad, club of the city of San Sebastian, insulted Brazilian player Vinicius Junior, Real Madrid. A cell phone camera captured the man’s gestures, which imitated a monkey, and the image circulated through social networks.
La Liga hired experts in lip reading to transcribe the offenses said by the fan and, in possession of the material, filed a complaint.
The incident took place in a King Cup game, a tournament analogous to the Brazilian Cup and is not organized by La Liga. Even so, the members of the entity decided to pay the process, as part of their program to combat insults and violence in the stadiums. There are 48 processes in all, the vast majority for racist offenses, of which almost half –23 – involve Vinicius Junior. An updated dossier last week shows that most cases have not yet been resolved, but there are some advances.
In June last year, three Valencia fans were sentenced to eight months in prison each for offending Vinicius Junior in a game at Mestalla stadium. It was a pioneering sentence in Spanish football, based on article 510 of the Penal Code, which punishes attacks against human dignity based on race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disease or social condition.
A second sentence in the same line came out last September against a Real Mallorca fan who was sentenced to one year in prison. He uttered racist offenses against Vinicius on February 5, 2023, and against Nigerian Samuel Chukweze, Villareal player, 12 days later. Both Valencia’s supporters and Mallorca repeat offender benefit from a legal provision that allows you to comply with open sentences in judgments less than two years. The four were banned from the stadiums by the respective clubs – this ban is difficult to oversee.
The clubs began to punish perpetrators because the Spanish government, through the Ministry of Education, vocational training and sports, begins to tighten the siege against them. Since 2009, the ministry has been a commission against racism, xenophobia and intolerance. Last November, the commission decided to apply fines of up to 20 thousand euros (R $ 125.5 thousand) to clubs that judge conniving with racist acts, including Mallorca. Fans are also sanctioned. The largest fine of 60,001 euros (R $ 376,600) was applied to the Indar Gorri group – a profile of Pamplona’s Osasuña club, which fires racist insults on social networks. The fine fell on the profile administrator.
Repudiation of racism in sport is growing in Spain for political and commercial reasons. In the Political Seara, there is the pressure of anti -racist groups about government agencies and the performance of militant players like Vinicius Junior. In the commercial area there is the dissatisfaction of sponsors: whenever acts of racism occur, their corporate profiles are filled with protests on social networks. Several of these companies expressed repudiation of racism during the most momentous case, the Valencia fans who offended Vinicius in Mestalla and ended up punished. Some of them are no longer sponsors of La Liga.
Sought by SheetLa Liga answered, through his press office, that he intends to organize a week against racism around March 21, the date on which the International Day of Elimination of Racial Discrimination is celebrated. In its dossier, the entity states that “the legislation in force in Spain only allows La to denounce the facts before the competent bodies” and says it has been fighting for legislative changes that give it power to punish the clubs. “This would allow you to reduce the sanction time for these cases.”
It appears from the document that punishes perpetrators of racism is not easy in a country that does not have a specific law for this type of crime. In some cases judges refuse the accusations for considering offenses isolated in the heat of a supposed club passion. La Liga’s effort – and the results obtained – can, however, serve as an example for other federations, such as Conmebol, responsible for international championships in South America.
This Thursday, the Palmeirense player Luighi was the victim of racist insults in Paraguay, during the Libertadores U-20 Copa game. “How long, Conmebol? You never do anything. Never!” Wrote Vinicius Junior on his social networks.
