Valencia has managed to reduce some of their punishments after appealing to the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF).
The world was shocked by the news of racism from Spain on Sunday. Real Madrid lost 1-0 away to Valencia. But the main focus was something else.
Their star player Vinicius Jr was the victim of vile racist abuses, with the whole opposition stadium insulting him. That very game, he received a red card for an altercation with Valencia players.
After the game, he had an emotional and passionate outburst on social media. This has led to him getting widespread support from many other football players and personalities. Even the Brazilian president asked for justice on Vini’s behalf.
What punishments were given to Valencia and why were they reduced?
Under the pressure of such huge opposition, Valencia was finally punished. But now the RFEF has backed down from its stance and reduced the punishments. The RFEF, which is in charge of all competitions in Spain decided to intervene.
They ordered Valencia to close down their Mario Kempes stand, which is where most of the racist chants came from, for five games. Valencia was also told to pay a fine of $48,000, due to its inability to control their fans.
The Spanish Federation has sanctioned Valencia with a partial closure of the Mestalla stadium for five matches and a $48,000 fine following fans' racial abuse of Vinicius Junior. pic.twitter.com/RnM3Gi26JV
— B/R Football (@brfootball) May 23, 2023
Moreover, six referees were fired, including the referee in charge of VAR during the controversial match. This was due to his inability to show Vinicius Jr being choked, and for showing biased images to the on-field referee. The red card Vinicius received was also removed and no punishments were given to him.
Valencia was quick to show their disappointment at the decision and released a statement. It read, “Valencia have collaborated from the first minute with the police and all relevant authorities to clarify the events that occurred.”
“In addition, we have applied the maximum possible sanction with the ban for life from our stadium for racist behavior of the fans identified by police.”
Valencia's punishment for fans' racist abuse to Vinicius Jr has been reduced
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) May 27, 2023
The fine has been cut from €45,000 to €27,000 (£23,700)
The partial closure of the Mestalla Stadium has also been reduced from 5 games to 3 games pic.twitter.com/JB76w5evSL
After they were punished, Valencia had 10 days to appeal the decision. They sent an appeal that the RFEF has decided to ‘partially uphold’.
After the appeal, the Spanish Federation decided to reduce the fine amount to $27,000 and the partial stadium closure from five games to three games.
The decision has earned much criticism from many critics, who are calling La Liga an ‘absolute joke’.
What abuse did Vinicius Jr receive?
The Valencia fans were seen shouting racist insults and chants throughout the game aimed at Vinicius Jr, all based on his black skin color. They called him ‘mono’, which means monkey in Spanish. There is a video below that shows the full extent of the racist chants.
Real Madrid has also already filed a hate crime complaint with Spanish authorities.
Already three people involved in the racist abuse have been detained by Spanish police. Valencia has also responded by giving them a lifetime ban from their stadium.
Over the previous two seasons, Vinicius has been treated to racial insults from the opposition fans on multiple occasions during La Liga matches, and seven individuals were detained on Tuesday in connection with episodes of racist abuse aimed towards the Real Madrid player this season. Four of them were arrested for hanging an effigy of the player during the Madrid derby.
Whether La Liga does anything to solve their racism issues needs to be seen.
