Real Madrid accused of providing unproven evidence of racial abuse

Real Madrid has seen its appeal against the red card received by Vinicius Junior during the 2-1 victory over Valencia dismissed, with a sentence as detailed as it is worrying.

One of the arguments why Real Madrid claimed that Vinicius should remain without the two-match ban was that the Brazilian was on the verge of racist abuse by Valencia fans, which could be considered a mitigating circumstance and a provocation. However, the Appeals Committee says it was unable to verify claims of racial abuse.

After the Mestalla clash, Real Madrid TV broadcast images from two Real Madrid fan channels on YouTube, where racist insults could be heard. Those images were then used as part of the Los Blancos club’s appeal, claiming this had an impact on the Brazilian. The following is an excerpt from his ruling.

“The video, edited and composed of several sequences from different matches, only allows us to listen to two isolated individuals, at two different times, uttering racist insults, and then show in the video evidence of different sequences of generalized chants such as “Beach Ball, Vinicius.” Beach Ball” or “idiot, idiot” that from an objective point of view do not fall into the category of racist insults reported by the appellant club.”

“This Committee, as it could not be otherwise, categorically rejects racist, xenophobic or intolerant behavior, chants or attitudes, but this rejection should not prevent the rigorous analysis that the complaint requires, without this Committee, in light of the evidence in the file, file, being able to consider the “serious racist chants” reported by the appellant club as proven, nor therefore take them into consideration from the point of view of constituting a circumstance that could mitigate responsibility disciplinary action derived from the action committed by the player.”

This is not to definitively say that racial abuse did not occur, but it is certainly worrying that Real Madrid did not investigate the material before making such serious allegations and using it as part of an official appeal.