After the multiple incidents that punctuated Real Madrid’s match lost 1-0 at Mestalla against Valencia CF and involving in particular Vinicius, excluded at the end of the game (90th + 7), Carlo Ancelotti, “sad”, lamented that “the La Liga has a problem with racism”
“Thinking about taking a player out because of racism had never happened to me. What happened today has happened to us before, but not this way. This is unacceptable. The Spanish La Liga has a problem with racism. And the problem is not Vinicius. Vinicius is the victim. But there is a very serious problem, ”launched the Italian coach at a press conference.
“The Spanish league has a problem with racism”
Throughout the match, the public at the Mestalla stadium insulted the Brazilian player, but doubts remain about the content of the insults. Ancelotti heard the stadium shout “mono”, or monkey in Spanish, but a journalist told him at a press conference that the spectators were shouting “tonto”, which means “fool” in Spanish.
An explanation that did not convince Ancelotti. “Why do you think the referee interrupted the game? Because the public was shouting ‘fool’ at Vinicius? No. The referee interrupted the game because he opened the racism protocol,” the Italian argued.
Around the 70th minute of the game, Vinicius pointed at a supporter, then the players went to report the facts to the referee.
“It’s La Liga, a racist championship”
“I asked him (to Vinicius, Ed) if he wanted to continue playing, and he wanted to continue. The referee told me that he also had to continue, that he was going to apply the protocol if it happened again. But it happened again, because when he sent him off on a red card, the whole stadium began to sing ‘monkey, monkey’… It can’t go on… I’m very sad,” lamented the technician. Italian.
In addition to this incident, another scuffle between the Brazilian striker and Hugo Duro led to the expulsion of “Vini” in the 90th + 7, but the referee decided not to sanction Duro. “What the racists have won is my expulsion. It’s not football. This is La Liga,” Vinicius reacted on Instagram after the game. The championship which was once that of ROnaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi, has become racist. But I will go all the way, even if it has to be far from here”.
– “Isolated act”, really?
In a statement issued after the match, Valencia CF said “publicly condemn any kind of insult, attack or contempt”, and “regrets the events that have occurred” Sunday, evoking however an “isolated act”. “The club is investigating the facts that have taken place and will take the most severe measures,” Valencia said in its press release.
“If Vini had said ‘I’m leaving the field’, I would have gone with him. It’s something that we cannot tolerate”, commented Thibaut Courtois, who also heard “monkey cries around the 20th minute”. “There have already been complaints, but what happened? Nothing at all. The one and only solution is to stop the game,” concluded Ancelotti.