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Real Madrid's Vinícius Júnior in action against Real Valladolid
Photo: VIOLETA SANTOS MOURA / REUTERS
Real Madrid's Brazilian striker Vinícius Júnior has again complained about racism in Spain's stadiums and accused the league of inaction.
"Racists still come to stadiums to see the best club in the world up close and La Liga does nothing more," lamented the 22-year-old footballer.
League boss Javier Tebas immediately rejected the accusation of inaction: The league has been fighting racism for years, Tebas wrote on Twitter to Vinicius Junior.
“It is very unfortunate, unfair and untrue to state publicly that the League does nothing to combat racism.
You better inform yourself.«
Events in Valladolid are not isolated cases
Vinícius Júnior lamented that Valladolid supporters racially insulted him during Real Madrid's away game at the Zorrilla Stadium on Friday.
The allegations are currently not supported by TV recordings.
However, online videos showed fans calling him a "son of a bitch" and throwing an object at him, which he kicked back.
Madrid won 2-0.
The Brazilian is repeatedly racially insulted, mostly as "Mono", Spanish for monkey.
In September, he was even called a “monkey” by an official on the popular TV sports program “El Chiringuito”.
In March, fans at an away game in Mallorca shouted that he should go "pick bananas" and chorused "Uh Uh Uh" to imitate the sounds of a monkey.
Although the clubs and La Liga regularly castigate such insults, it hardly changes anything about the incidents.
In a lengthy statement on its website, the league listed some of the measures taken in the event of racist abuse by Vinícius Júnior, Iñaki and Nico Williams or Carlos Akapo.
As in these cases, La Liga will report the new insults in Valladolid to the State Commission against Violence, Racism and Xenophobia and to the Hate Crimes Prosecutor.
cev/dpa