According to Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manhã, Argentine player Gianluca Prestianni told club colleagues that he had effectively called Brazilian Vinícius Júnior “mono”, “monkey” in Spanish, during the game between Benfica and Real Madrid on Tuesday (17), during a Champions League match. The news was published on Thursday afternoon (26).
Just over an hour after publication, Benfica released a statement denying the outfit. “Sport Lisboa e Benfica categorically denies that the player informed the squad or the Club’s structure that he had made a racist insult to the Real Madrid player Vinicius Jr.”
Also according to the note, “the player apologized to his colleagues for the incident that occurred during the match against Real Madrid, regretting the size and consequences of it and assuring everyone, as he did from the beginning, that he is not racist.”
Despite the official denial, new details released by the vehicle reinforced the initial version. According to the Correio da Manhã television channel, one of the audience leaders in Portugal, Prestianni allegedly took offense to Vinicius Junior “from the first hour”, in a meeting with teammates, at the same time that he “denied being racist”. According to the broadcaster, Prestianni told his colleagues that the insult had come out “in the heat of the discussion”, as a response to “some provocations”.
The episode, however, went beyond the internal environment of the clubs and gained an institutional dimension. The Brazilian reported the offense during the match, which led the referee to activate the “racist protocol”, interrupting the game. The fact had several consequences in football and outside it. The complaint boosted a Citizens’ Legislative Initiative that could toughen the Portuguese law against discrimination, if it is approved in the Assembly of the Republic.
In the sporting field, the consequences were immediate. UEFA, the governing body of European football, began an investigation into the case. Prestianni was punished with a one-game suspension for a “prima facie violation”. The legal term suggests that, with the evidence available so far, UEFA considers that the racist offense may indeed have occurred.
The main evidence is testimonies from players. The most eloquent is the interview with Frenchman Kylian Mbappé shortly after the match. The attacker, who was close to Vinicius and Prestianni during the minutes in which there were altercations between players from both teams, stated that he heard the “mono” insult five times.
So far, no video or audio recordings have appeared that record the racist infamy. According to UEFA jurisprudence, however, testimonial evidence may be sufficient to sanction a player for racism.
There are recent precedents that help to contextualize the case. This occurred in 2021, when Czech Ondrej Koudela made racist insults against an opponent. Like Prestianni, he was suspended one game for a “prima facie violation”. After the investigations were completed, he received a ten-game suspension from European competitions, which caused him to miss the European Championship, which he would compete for with the Czech Republic team.
Since the beginning of the case, the club has been defending Prestianni. At first, the club released a note saying that it “fully supports and believes in the player’s version”. Even suspended, Prestianni traveled with Benfica to Madrid for the second leg of the knockout round, on Wednesday (25), in a demonstration that the club fully endorsed its player. Benfica lost and ended up eliminated. The winning goal was from Vinicius Junior.
Article 14 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code provides, for players who perpetrate racist offenses, “suspensions of at least ten games or for a specific period, in addition to other appropriate disciplinary measures”.
Clubs can also be punished in case of negligence or complicity in acts of racism. For associations, the Disciplinary Code provides for “severe fines, up to 5 million Swiss francs (R$ 34 million), playing games behind closed doors, loss of points, or exclusion from competitions.”
