Real Madrid News
La Liga responds to Vinicius Jr’s jibe after racial abuse incident during Valladolid clash
Real Madrid’s win over Real Valladolid on Friday was overshadowed by racial abuses hurled towards Vinicius Junior by one of the fans.
The Real Madrid winger took to social media to voice his displeasure at being once again made the subject of abuse. He went on to criticise La Liga, accusing the Spanish footballing body of not taking enough actions to curb racism.
La Liga, though, has been quick to respond to the player. In the form of a press release, the body has issued a response, where they have confirmed to have identified the fan that had racially abused Vinicius.
La Liga further said that the report has been sent to the Anti-Violence Commission and Hate Crimes Prosecutor’s office.
“Before the publication of Vinicius Jr, a Real Madrid player, on his social networks, making a comment in which he alludes to the lack of action measures on the part of La Liga in the fight against racism, La Liga has detected racist insults from someone, from the stands of the Zorrilla stadium, published on social networks.
“These events will be reported to the Anti-Violence Commission and the Hate Crimes Prosecutor’s Office,” said the press release (h/t Mundo Deportivo).
Prior to this, La Liga president Javier Tebas had taken to Twitter to issue a response on Vinicius’ jibe, as he wrote: “In La Liga, we have been fighting against RACISM for years. Vinicius, it is very unfortunate, unfair and it is not true to publish that La Liga does nothing against racism, get better information.
“We are at your disposal so that ALL TOGETHER, we go in the same direction.”
This is not the first time Vinicius Junior has been made the victim of racial abuse. The winger had been targeted by racist slurs during the derby against Atletico Madrid earlier this season.
In what could be a real deal breaker for Real Madrid ahead of their Copa del Rey semi-final second leg clash against Barcelona, it has been revealed that as many as three Barça will be absent from the game while another key player remains a major doubt.
The list includes the likes of Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Andreas Christensen. The trio is certain to miss the game through respective injuries while a certain Frenkie de Jong is more or less ruled out, as per Javi Miguel.
It must be remembered that Barcelona are heading into the second leg with a 1-0 advantage. But the absence of the aforementioned players means Madrid can work on exploiting the frailties.
Despite the absence of such big names, Barcelona did pretty well against Elche in their previous outing, coming out 4-0 victorious, with the goals coming from Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres.
With options lacking in midfield, Xavi decided to use the likes of Sergi Roberto and Eric Garcia along with Gavi in the heart of the lineup. In any way, they do have Sergio Busquets and Franck Kessie as backups if needed.
The defence, on the other hand, was perfectly guarded by Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde.
One can expect Xavi to once again interchange Araujo with Kounde on the right since the Uruguayan has been rather successful in minimizing the threat of Vinicius Jr.
As far as Madrid are concerned, they are sweating over the fitness of three key defenders, namely, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho, and Ferland Mendy. Between these three, the Frenchman is out for about a month while Rudiger and Nacho are expected to be back before the Clasico.
If there are no casualties against Real Valladolid, Madrid will have a perfect midfield and attack, with only Mariano Diaz missing.
