Is there still room for racism in sport?
Over the weekend, during the Valencia CF game against Real Madrid, racist chants were uttered by Valencia fans present at the Mestalla stadium, calling Vinícius Júnior “Mono” (Monkey).
This started before the game because, as we can see in the following video, the racist insults started when the Real Madrid bus arrived at the stadium.
Sadly, it looks like racism is making a comeback in sport.
3 years ago we had a case of racism in a game between Vitória de Guimarães and FC Porto against the player Marega (FC Porto) who couldn't take the insults and decided to leave the field.
However, Vini Jr's situation this season has been somewhat surreal.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1660743682461519872
Something I never thought would happen in one of the most important leagues in Europe and one of the most important clubs in the world.
Is La Liga sleeping? Do you allow this type of behavior in your league and stadiums?
This seems unreal...
But for me the worst part is still the journalists at Carlos Ancelotti's press conference trying to defend that the fans didn't say “Mono”, but “Tonto” and that it was a mistake of the non-Spanish people listening/translating the chants.
Ancelotti and rightly asked if the referee would start the procedure against racism if the supporters were singing “Tonto”
Even the Sporting Director of Valencia FC came to try to “sell” that they weren't racist insults, but a misunderstanding of the word, and that Vini Jr was guilty due to his reaction.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1660384215131717634
Well, did Vini Jr go from being the victim of racist insults to becoming guilty? But is everything okay in these people's heads?
Even Rio Ferdinand, former Manchester United center-back, made a post on Instagram defending Vini Jr and asking who protects the player against these behaviors.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CshHW2it1bG/
In the image used in the publication, it is visible that the player received a blow normally applied by the police to make arrests, but in this case it was a Valencia CF player who applied it.
However, in the VAR review, only Vini JR was shown the red light because, when trying to free himself, he attacked this player.
Didn't VAR see everything from the start? Didn't you see this aggression initiated by the Valencia player? Do we even see racism in this?
Well, this situation is completely out of control, but La Liga still hasn't made any kind of statement or statement and neither has Real Madrid.
If this happened in a club where I play something, I was sure in the next game my team would not take the field even if we had to pay the no-show fine.
Doing nothing will only demonstrate to everyone, as analyzed in the video below, that in football you can do anything and as there nothing is punished any day we have this type of behavior on the street in our day-to-day.
Look at the USA or the Premier League, when there are acts of racism at the time, people are expelled from the venues and taken to court to answer for their actions, because racism is a CRIME!