Valencia gets reduced sentences after racist insults to Vini Jr

The Appeal Committee of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) decided this Friday partially estimate the resource of Valencia and reduced the closure of the “Mario Kempes” south stand at the Mestalla stadium from five to three games, and reduced the fine from 45,000 to 27,000 euros.

The appeal yesterday denied Valencia’s request to temporarily suspend, urgently or very urgently, the sanction imposed by the Competition Commission, which last Tuesday decided to partially close the venue due to racist insults directed by fans at Brazilian striker Vinícius Júnior, from Real Madrid, in the duel played last Sunday.

The committee indicated that it could not grant the precautionary measure, “because it is impossible to appreciate it without the existence of an appeal”, and accepted the club’s request for the “file” to be forwarded to it to present its complaint, which was partially upheld. .

Valencia based its appeal on the annulment of the competition resolution, for not following the procedure and causing it to be defenseless, not having been able to analyze the video of the incidents as it had been sent to them just a few hours before, and accrediting “the diligent fulfillment of its obligations and the adoption of the required preventive measures”.

The club stated that, if its arguments were not accepted, the facts should not be classified as serious as they were and the existence of a mitigating circumstance should be appreciated.

In its resolution today, the Appeal stated that the club cannot be exonerated of its responsibility in the facts, which fall within the typification of the Competition Committee.

Also that, although he adopted many measures, “they proved to be insufficient, in view of the precedents of incidents in that sector of the stands and in view of the notoriously hostile environment that involved the game (also in relation to the player to whom the insults were directed, since its beginning or even before).

“Although we understand that the club cannot be exonerated since the typification is correct and there is no provision of sufficiently intense measures, we understand that they were not sufficiently taken into account in the resolution of the instance of the actions implemented by it, in the sense of the provisions in the Disciplinary Code (arts. 12 and 15), including the mitigation that the appellant Club alleges”, he said.

For this reason, the committee concludes that “it is possible to partially grant the appeal, reducing the penalty to partial closure for a period of three games and the corresponding reduction of the fine to 27,000 euros”.

The Competition Committee sanctioned Valencia with the partial closure of the south stand for five games, plus a fine of 45,000 euros for the practice of very serious infractions typified in articles 69.1.c), 69.2.d) and 76.1 of the Disciplinary Code of the RFEF, after the racist insults to Vinícius last Sunday, which was interrupted for a few minutes because the player confronted the authors of the offenses.