LaLiga investigates racist insults by child filmed calling Vini Jr a “monkey”

Complaint

Brazilian fan filmed insults in the stands of the Mestalla stadium, in Valencia

Real Madrid sought a draw with Valencia this Saturday (2), in a duel for the Spanish Championship. Carlo Ancelotti’s team started losing 2-0, but had two goals from Brazilian Vinicius Júnior to level the score. Once again, the striker was a victim of racism at the Mestalla stadium, in Valencia, but this time from a child.

In a video taken by a Brazilian fan, a child can be seen, on a woman’s lap, shouting “monkey” towards the attacker.

The author of the video, Brazilian Anna Anjos, was attacked by the woman when she noticed the recording. In an interview with ESPN, Anna said that they argued that the screams were not racist, but “I was just calling Vini an animal”.

“What bothered me most was a child next to him, two chairs away, calling him mono (monkey) the whole time. I even tried to interfere, I spoke to the child, I spoke to the child’s mother, I said that what they were doing was not correct, that they couldn’t keep calling Vinicius mono, that this was racist. And I think it’s so recurring, so normal for them, that the child’s mother said it wasn’t an offense, that he was just calling Vini an animal. I said that Vini wasn’t an animal, that they couldn’t do that and they kept calling him mono the whole time”, said the Brazilian.

Anna recalls that fans said the offense was common, as it was a stadium environment.

“They came to me, asked what was happening, I said they were being racist, they called Vini mono. I think they knew what the other fans were doing was wrong and asked me to behave. They said it was the atmosphere of the stadium and that this was normal and I was supposed to behave. If I behaved I could stay there.”

In the 35th round of the Spanish Championship last season, the match between the same teams, also at Mestalla, was interrupted in the second stage, after a section of Valencia fans present at the stadium called the Brazilian a “monkey”.

What happened this Saturday is being investigated by LALIGA so that measures can be taken. In August 2023, the institution decided to create new platforms to combat racism in Spanish football, “LALIGA vs Racism”.

*With information from CNN Brasil

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