La Liga
Factbox: Racism in Spain and La Liga – was Vinicius Jr’s case unusual?
Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr has called La Liga and Spain racist after receiving racial slurs from the stands in Sunday’s defeat at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium.
Spain is not alone in suffering from racism in its stadiums.
Racism has been a long-running problem in Italian football, where authorities have also been criticised for not taking sufficient action. In April, 171 Juventus fans were given stadium bans for chanting racist abuse at Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku during a Coppa Italia semi-final earlier that month.
France national team players, including star forward Kylian Mbappe, were racially abused online after they lost the World Cup final to Argentina, and England’s Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka were similarly abused after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final.
The following are some of the most significant episodes involving racism in recent Spanish football:
APRIL 2000
Malaga’s Dario Silva faced battery charges after punching an Oviedo fan who had allegedly hurled anti-Black slurs at him when the Uruguayan striker declined to sign autographs.
NOVEMBER 2004
During a Spain-England friendly at the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, England’s Andy Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Jermaine Jenas, Jermain Defoe and Shaun Wright-Phillips were subjected to racist chants imitating monkey noises by Spanish fans. FIFA imposed a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs ($112,498.59) on the Spanish football federation RFEF.
NOVEMBER 2004
Barcelona forward Samuel Eto’o received a yellow card after lobbing a ball at Getafe fans following monkey noises from the stands. The Cameroonian would go on to celebrate some of his goals that season by making ape-like gestures parodying the racist chants.
MARCH 2005
Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope punched an “ultra” fan from his own club, Malaga, after a small group hurled racist slurs at him and made monkey noises following a match against Real Betis.
APRIL 2005
A banana was flung at Espanyol goalkeeper Carlos Kameni at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon stadium.
FEBRUARY 2006
Barca’s Eto’o threatened to leave the pitch in protest against racist chants at Real Zaragoza’s La Romareda stadium, though ultimately stayed on. The club was fined 9,000 euros ($9,907.20).
APRIL 2014
Barcelona defender Dani Alves had a banana thrown at him as he was about to take a corner kick at Villarreal’s El Madrigal stadium. Alves peeled the fruit and took a bite. A 26-year-old man was later arrested and charged with a “breach of fundamental rights and civil liberties”, fined 6,000 euros and banned from attending football matches for two years. Villarreal were also fined 12,000 euros.
AUGUST 2016
Referee Carlos Clos temporarily suspended a match between Sporting Gijon and Athletic Bilbao after racist chants against Bilbao striker Inaki Williams. RFEF’s Competition Committee ordered the partial closure of one of the stadium’s stands.
DECEMBER 2019
A second-division match between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete became the first to be cancelled because of offensive chants directed at players. Left-wing Rayo ultras had called Albacete’s Roman Zozulya – a white Ukrainian striker – a “nazi”. La Liga backed the referee’s decision saying it was “against all racism and xenophobia” in football.
JANUARY 2020
Racist chants against Bilbao’s Williams at Espanyol’s Cornella-El Prat stadium sparked the first xenophobic hate crime trial in Spanish football, with only one fan indicted. Prosecutors are seeking two years in prison, a fine and a stadium ban for him in the ongoing trial.
APRIL 2021
Valencia’s Mouctar Diakhaby said rival player Juan Cala cast racist insults at him at the Ramon de Carranza stadium in Cadiz. The entire Valencia squad left the pitch for a few minutes but later returned without the French defender to avoid a penalty. La Liga later said it had found no evidence Cala directed racist language at Diakhaby.
JANUARY 2023
Spanish police launched a hate crime investigation after an effigy wearing Vinicius Jr’s No. 20 shirt was hung from a bridge in front of Real Madrid’s training ground ahead next to a banner in Atletico Madrid’s red and white colours that read “Madrid hates Real”.
FEBRUARY 2023
La Liga filed a legal complaint after Vinicius Jr was racially abused by Real Mallorca supporters. In response, Mallorca withdrew a fan’s membership card for three years.
-Reuters
It was mission accomplished, said Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti after his side fought back from two-goals behind to snatch a rip-roaring 4-4 draw on Tuesday for a 5-4 aggregate win that put them through to the Copa del Rey final.
Ancelotti brushed off questions about a sub-par performance by his side and praised his players’ effort in what he considered a highly entertaining encounter.
“We have achieved our goal today which was to reach the final and there is not much time to think about it,” Ancelotti told a press conference.
“It was an entertaining game with some mistakes and a lot of good things. It was fun and we are in the final.
“I never saw ourselves out of it because anything can happen at the Bernabeu. When we have to come from behind, we never give up. We never give up, especially at home, with the fans by our side.”
Ancelotti said David Alaba was not to blame after he deflected two balls into his own goal, calling it “bad luck” by the Austrian defender, but urged his defence to play with better focus moving forward.
“It’s not good to concede four goals in a game,” Ancelotti said.
“Right now we are a team that has a lot of effectiveness up-front, but little balance.
“However, we can’t ignore what we did in attack, scoring four goals against Real is not that easy. I think we are doing quite well.”
Real Madrid, who have won the Spanish Cup only once in over a decade, will play either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in a mouth-watering final in Seville next month.
Atletico fought back to hold Barca to a thrilling 4-4 draw ahead of Wednesday’s second-leg in Madrid.
-Reuters
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Real Madrid’s legendary coach Carlo Ancelotti will go on trial next week for allegedly failing to declare income to Spain’s tax office, the Madrid court which will hear the case has said.
Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of four years and nine months for the 65-year-old Italian, accusing him of having cost Spain’s treasury more than one million euros ($1.1 million) in undeclared earnings from image rights in 2014 and 2015.
The trial will begin on Wednesday and it is expected to last two days, a spokesman for the court said.
Ancelotti, who as a coach has won a record five Champions League trophies including three with Real, must be present for the hearings, he added.
Prosecutors accuse him of only declaring in his tax returns the personal remuneration received from Real Madrid during those two years even though he himself declared himself to be a tax resident in Spain and indicated his home was in Madrid.
They accuse Ancelotti of allegedly setting up a “confusing” and “complex” system of shell companies to hide his extra earnings from his image rights as well as from other sources such as real estate.
A Spanish court in 2023 ordered Ancelotti to stand trial over the affair, but did not set a date.
Ancelotti dismissed the affair last year as “an old story that I hope will be resolved soon” when he was asked about the case.
He took over at Real Madrid in 2013, leaving in May 2015, before being appointed at Bayern Munich the following year.
The former Italy international midfielder, who as a player won the European Cup twice with AC Milan, later managed Napoli and Everton before returning to Real Madrid in 2021.
Aside from his success in the Champions League he has won domestic league titles with Madrid and Milan, in England with Chelsea, in Germany with Bayern Munich and in France with Paris Saint-Germain.
-AFP
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Spain’s former soccer chief Luis Rubiales told Reuters on Thursday he would appeal a court ruling which found him guilty of sexual assault for kissing player Jenni Hermoso without her consent.-
-Reuters
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