On Sunday the 21st of May, the match between Valencia and Real Madrid became the site to the latest incident of racism against Vinicius Junior. Following constant racist chanting from Valencia fans, the racial slur ‘mono’, monkey, rung out around the stadium.. After a game of constant abuse, Vinicius was approached by the Valencia goalkeeper and physically pushed which Vini responded to in turn and received a red card. 

More troubling even than racism from fans is the reaction, justification, and apologia from members of the Spanish football media to the la Liga president. There appears to be both a culture of victim blaming and minimizing of instances of discrimination.  In the post-match interview of Carlo Ancelotti, his support for Vini was questioned by Spanish Tv with an interviewer replying to the manager’s condemnation of the racism with “yeah but what about his own reaction”. This clearly outlined that many in the Spanish football media fail to see that racism is always wrong and that any adverse reaction to said racism is understandable. This is even more unacceptable given the 9 separate criminal reports of racial abuse against Vinicius Junior in just the past two seasons alone. Not only did some in the Spanish media attack Vinicius for his reaction but they also questioned whether any racism had occurred in the first place. One journalist stated To Ancelotti “Since you’ve previously had problems with the (Spanish) language, I’ll clarify it for you. Mestalla wasn’t chanting ‘monkey’ (mono), they were chanting ‘silly’ (tonto). It’s a serious accusation to say a whole stadium was racist.”. The constant denial of racism and its casual place within Spanish football has clearly meant that many of Spain’s most bigoted fans feel emboldened to racially abuse. Just yesterday four Athelti fans where arrested for the hanging of an effigy of Vinicius junior. Earlier in the season Vini had taken to social media and mentioned posting a video of his racial abuse in return El Chiringuito, a Spanish Football show, threatened to ‘destroy him’. While fans are clearly responsible for their racism, some aspects of the Spanish Media have created a hostile environment that makes it difficult to call out racial abuse and protects racist fans. Clearly, racism in Spain is a problem that goes well beyond small pockets of fans in Valencia. 

The incident has exposed the deeper structural discrimination and ignorance within la Liga as an organization. Tebas, la Liga president responded to accusations from Vinicius that Spain is ‘known as a country of racists’ and la Liga ‘belongs to racists’ by furiously stating that Vinicius twice did not turn up for a meeting to discuss what it “can do in cases of racism”, adding: “Before you criticize and slander La Liga, you need to inform yourself properly.”. Instead of supporting Vinicius and presenting solutions Tebas immediately victimized himself and painted Vini in a negative light. The emphasis should not be on the victim of racism to solve the issue but rather the governing body. If La Liga doesn’t take effective and significant action it risks slipping again into its declining position in the global game. After losing all-time superstars like Messi and Ronaldo the league cannot afford to lose its brightest new prospect because of a hostile racist atmosphere. If it continues in the same fashion it could go the way of Serie A in terms of standings. 

Racism in Spanish football also has a deep-rooted history dating back to when the first black footballers started playing in Spain. In 1997 Roberto Carlos featured in his first El Classico but the match itself faded somewhat into irrelevance due to the scale of racism targeted at the gifted Brazillian. The match saw chants and banners with the word for ‘monkey’, with his car also being keyed with the same slur. In response Pep Guardiola who had played for Barcelona during the match said following the match that “That man talks too much,” he said after the game, before claiming that the Brazilian doesn’t know the Barcelona fans well to call them racist. Now and in the past many fellow players have failed to support their black colleagues in fighting racism.  The response that Vinicius has received to calling out abuse is not unique to him and there is a precedent of intolerance and ostracisation of those who speak out. 

What has been done?

Real Madrid has reported the abuse as a hate crime to the Spanish State Attorney General’s Office. Valencia will be fined £39,000 along with the closure of their South stand for five games. 

The Spanish FA, Sports Council, and La Liga have joined forces for an anti-racism campaign. The campaign, as well as being featured on the national and international broadcasts of all matches, on the logo and advertising boards, will also be visible in the stadiums through information leaflets for fans.”It will also be visible on the placards that will be carried by the starting line-ups, as well as on players’ armbands in future matches.”Racists out of football” and “United against Racism” aims to bring together the strength of everyone: institutions, clubs, athletes, and fans with the goal of eradicating racism and its agents from our football.” These all on the surface feel like positive steps. However, while a good thing, I fear whether these campaigns will have any real impact in reducing racism. Many of the most abusive racists don’t need educated or informed but to be properly held accountable for their actions.

What Can Be Done? 

A zero-tolerance attitude must be taken by La Liga from now on. This should include the ban of racist fans from the stadium and criminal prosecution where appropriate. To create an incentive for clubs to route out overt racism there must be punishments for racially abusive fans that go as far as points deductions, stadium bans, and possible relegation if it persists. Racism is a societal problem and not unique to football and requires greater education and prosecution but football can stop at the very least overt racism from finding its voice in Spanish football stadiums. If the issues in Spain remain unaddressed then La Liga may find itself left in the past along with its former European dominance.

We are yet to see the impact of the reforms that La Liga claims they are making so their effects are uncertain. One thing for sure is the attention of the global football media will be moreso on racism in Spanish football than ever before.