Vinicius Jr news LIVE: Hanging effigy of Real…

Annexed to their statement, LaLiga have also included details of no fewer than 13 cases referred to Spanish courts and their current status – nine of them involving Vinicius Jr.

The other players to have received racist abuse are Inaki Williams, Nico Williams (both Athletic Club), Samu Chukwueze (Villarreal) and Carlos Akapo (then Cadiz).

Theses cases range from January 2020 to the present day and they are in varying stages of judicial process, with the case of Inaki Williams awaiting a trial date for example and Akapo set to testify “in the near future”.

A statement from LaLiga presented this morning to UK media:

LaLiga will request more sanctioning powers, with the aim of being more agile and effective in the fight against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport, where LaLiga has been leading the identification and reporting of such behaviour in football stadiums for years, but feels powerless when observing how its reporting ends.

Despite its intense and continuous fight against violence and racism to the full extent of its powers (currently, according to Spanish legislation, limited to identifying and reporting the facts that occur), LaLiga feels tremendous frustration at the lack of sanctions and convictions by the sports disciplinary bodies, public administrations and jurisdictional bodies to which it reports.

Faced with this serious situation, in the coming days LaLiga will formally request the amendment of Law 19/2007 of July 11, against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport and Law 39/2022 of December 30, on sport.

The purpose of the proposal is to request that LaLiga may exercise disciplinary authority over incidents of this type which occur in matches of the professional competition, so that the disciplinary bodies of LaLiga may proceed to sanction them, among otherthings, with the total or partial closure ofthe sports venue, the prohibition of access to it in the case of members/fans and the imposition of financial penalties, without prejudice to the adoption of provisional or precautionary measures that may be appropriate, depending on the nature and seriousness of the incidents.

As we have been repeating in recent days, LaLiga has been leading the fight against violence, racism and intolerance on football pitches, both inside and outside the stadium, identifying such behaviour through its Match Directors, security officers and television cameras, and subsequently reporting it to the relevant bodies.

Valencia’s sponsors Puma offered their support for Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr after he was racially abused during their LaLiga match in Spain on Sunday.

Vinicius called LaLiga and Spain “racist” after receiving racial slurs from fans in Sunday’s game at Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium.

The Brazil forward pointed out the fans who were insulting him, leading to the match being paused for 10 minutes, and then got into an altercation with Valencia’s players which led to him being sent off in the second half. Real lost the game 1-0.

“At PUMA, we do not tolerate racism, we condemn discrimination in any form and stand in solidarity with Vinicius Junior and the wider football community in condemning events yesterday,” Puma, who sponsor both Valencia and LaLiga, said in a statement to Reuters.

Spanish bank Santander, whose title sponsorship with LaLiga ends after this season, also voiced their support.

“Santander strongly rejects all racism and discrimination in whatever form it takes,” it said in a statement.

Real Madrid have filed an official complaint to the Spanish attorney general’s office after one of its players suffered racial abuse during a match.

Vinicius Jr was abused during Sunday night’s defeat to Valencia at the Mestalla stadium, halting the game temporarily to draw the officials’ attention to a section of supporters.

The 22-year-old was later sent off after a clash with Hugo Duro, and afterwards accused La Liga of not doing enough to fight racism, describing Spain as a “country of racists”.

His club has now released an official statement confirming that they have referred what they consider a “hate crime” to the authorities.

Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has joined football clubs and players in coming out to support star striker Vinícius Júnior after he once more faced racist abuse in a Spanish league match on Sunday.

The latest incident took place in Real Madrid’s 1-0 loss at Valencia, a match that had to be temporarily stopped after the Brazil forward said he was insulted by a fan behind one of the goals at Mestalla Stadium.

Valencia fans were filmed making monkey chants toward Vinícius, who is Black.

Lula told a news conference in Japan on the sidelines of a G7 meeting that he hopes FIFA, the Spanish League and other soccer bodies “take measures so we don’t allow racism and fascism to take over” in the sport.

“It is not fair that a poor boy who is winning in his life, becoming one of the best in the world, certainly the best at Real Madrid, is insulted in every stadium he goes to,” Lula said. Several of his cabinet ministers also backed Vinicius and were critical of the Spanish league.

Spanish soccer has a racism problem, its football federation chief Luis Rubiales said on Monday, echoing criticism by Brazil after Real Madrid lodged a race crime complaint following insults hurled at their Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr.

The top-flight LaLiga is under pressure to do more to combat racism after the Brazilian president, FIFA and fellow sporting stars such as France forward Kylian Mbappe, Rio Ferdinand and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton voiced support for Vinicius.

In a social media post, Vinicius Jr. called racist abuse “inhuman” and asked sponsors and broadcasters to hold LaLiga accountable.

“What is missing to criminalize these people? And punish the clubs sportively? Why don’t the sponsors charge LaLiga? Don’t the televisions bother to broadcast this barbarity every weekend?” Vinicius said.

The statement came a day after the match against Valencia at the Mestalla stadium was stopped for 10 minutes after the 22-year-old Brazilian striker pointed out fans who he said were hurling racist comments at him.

“The problem is very serious, and press releases don’t work anymore. Neither does blaming me to justify criminal acts,” he added.

Vinicius, Real Madrid’s second top scorer this season in all competitions (23) behind Karim Benzema (29), had previously described Spain as a “country of racists” after the match against Valencia on Sunday.

That provoked a response from LaLiga President Javier Tebas, who said on Twitter that enough was being done and that Vinicius should inform himself “before you criticise and slander LaLiga”.

“The first thing is to recognise that we have a problem in our country,” Rubiales said at a press conference in Madrid on Monday. It is “a serious problem that also stains an entire team, an entire fan base, an entire club, an entire country”.

Earlier on Monday, the Brazilian government called on Spanish and sports authorities earlier to punish those responsible for the “racist attacks” against the player, while the president of football’s governing body FIFA Gianni Infantino expressed his solidarity.

Other sporting figures such as Kylian Mbappe, Rio Ferdinand, and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton also voiced their support for Vinicius Jr.

The 22-year-old Brazil international later posted a picture of the statue silhouetted against the moon on Twitter and expressed his gratitude for the support he had received.

“Black and imposing. Christ the Redeemer was like this just now. An action of solidarity that moved me. But I want, above all, to inspire and bring more light to our struggle,” he wrote.

Spanish Football Federation head Luis Rubiales admitted there was a real problem of racism in the country’s football where “press releases don’t work anymore”.

The lights on Rio de Janeiro’s iconic statue of Christ the Redeemer were switched off for an hour on Monday night in a display of solidarity with Vinicius Jr after the Brazil forward was racially abused during a club match in Spain.

The lights were turned off at 1800 local time to cap a day when the Brazilian government and the world of football united to condemn the racial slurs aimed at the Real Madrid player during a Spanish league match on Sunday.

The Archdiocesan Sanctuary that manages the monument carried out the act in cooperation with the Brazilian FA and the Observatory of Racial Discrimination in Football.

“The Christ the Redeemer Archdiocesan Sanctuary repudiates the racist attacks suffered by the Brazilian player Vinicius Junior,” the body said in an Instagram post.

“The lighting of the monument will be switched off as a symbol of the collective fight against racism and in solidarity with the player and all those who suffer prejudice around the world.”

Spanish police detained four men on Tuesday in connection with an incident in which an effigy representing Brazilian soccer star Vinicius Jr was hung from a bridge in January, a day after a senior official said Spanish football had a racism problem.

A hate crime investigation was opened after the effigy wearing winger Vinicius Jr’s No. 20 shirt was hung from a bridge in front of the training ground of Real Madrid, the player’s team, along with a 16-metre red and white banner, the colours of rival team Atletico Madrid, that read “Madrid hates Real”.

The arrests come a day after football federation chief Luis Rubiales said Spanish soccer has a racism problem, following a race-crime complaint lodged by Real Madrid.

After racial slurs were aimed at the Real Madrid player during a Spanish league match on Sunday, Vinicius Jr, in a social media post, called the racist abuse “inhuman” and asked sponsors and broadcasters to hold LaLiga accountable.

The four men could be responsible for an alleged hate crime and three of them are active members of “a radical group of fans of a Madrid club”, police said. Those three members were previously identified during matches and qualified as “high risk” to help prevent violence in sport, they said.

LaLiga, the country’s top football league, is under pressure to do more to combat racism after the Brazilian president, FIFA, and sporting stars such as France forward Kylian Mbappe, Rio Ferdinand and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton voiced support for Vinicius.

The effigy incident took place before Real hosted Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals in late January.

Four people have been arrested over the hanging effigy of Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr in Madrid as the fallout from Spanish football’s racism storm continues.

The effigy was hanged by the neck on the morning of the Madrid derby between Real and Atletico in January, beneath a banner bearing the words “Madrid hates Real”. The arrests come in the aftermath of a heated match on Sunday in which Vinicius was racially abused by some Valencia supporters, an ugly incident that has become a regular occurrence for the Brazilian winger to endure this season.