"Spanish prosecutors investigate racist football abuse against Vinícius Júnior", 22 May 2023

...Spanish prosecutors have opened an investigation over racist chants hurled at Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior during a weekend match, as the head of Spain’s football federation admitted the country had a “problem” with racism.

The prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Valencia, where the game took place, was investigating the incident as a possible “hate crime”, judicial sources said, after Luis Rubiales of the Royal Spanish Football Federation called for zero tolerance...

Valencia said it had banned one of its fans for life and was looking to identify others. “The club has analysed all the available footage, working alongside the authorities as rapidly as possible to clarify what happened,” it said in a statement.

Real Madrid said it strongly condemned the incident, which it believed to be a hate crime. “These events represent a direct attack on the social and democratic model of coexistence of our state based on the rule of law,” the club said...

The Spanish league has made nine similar formal complaints for racist abuse against Vinícius over the past two seasons, most of which have been shelved. Fans have been fined and banned from stadiums, but so far only a Mallorca supporter may end up going on trial for allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game...

Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called on Fifa and La Liga to take “serious measures” after Sunday’s scenes at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium. “We cannot allow fascism and racism to seize control of football stadiums,” Lula said...

Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, expressed his full solidarity with Vinícius, who has been in Spain for five years. “There is no place for racism in football or in society and Fifa stands by all players who have found themselves in such a situation,” he said...

Javier Tebas, the Spanish league president, hit out at Vinícius for attacking La Liga, saying the player had not shown up for talks on the subject of racism that he had requested himself. Vinícius was highly critical of Tebas’s stance...