The vicious racist abuse of Vinícius Jr – the Real Madrid and Brazil star – points to something rotten at the very core of Spanish football. La Liga, marketed worldwide as the glamorous pinnacle of club football, is riddled with racism and racist attitudes at every level of the game: from the pitch to the stands. This has been made worse by a culture of denial, complacency and inaction on the part of those charged with overseeing Spanish football. Turning a blind eye to the problem has now come back to bite them in a big way.
The racist taunting of Vinícius began even before kick off in the weekend game between Real Madrid and Valencia at the Mestalla stadium. Valencia fans chanted in Spanish, ‘Vinícius, you’re a monkey’ as Real’s players got off the team bus. During the match, the player confronted abusive fans and even pointed out the perpetrators. It made little difference.
Is there any other job in which someone is subject to racist abuse in the workplace, and simply be expected to carry on?
Vinícius took to social media after the match, saying ‘racism is normal in La Liga’ and claimed that ‘in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists’.
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