Spanish justice on Monday sentenced three Valencia club supporters to eight months in prison for having uttered racist insults in May 2023 towards Brazilian Real Madrid striker Vinicius Junior.
The defendants, who admitted the facts, also received a two-year stadium ban, indicated the Valencia Superior Court of Justice, in charge of the case, in a press release.
The supporters in question will also have to cover the procedural costs linked to the case, adds the court, for which these racist cries provoked in the player feelings of “frustration, shame and humiliation, with the consequence of violation of his dignity.
In reaction, Real Madrid welcomed this conviction, the “first for facts of this nature” in Spain, according to the club, which specifies in a press release that the three supporters “made public a letter of apology addressed” to the player 23 years old.
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Vinicius Junior was greeted, on May 21, 2023, by monkey cries upon his arrival at the Valencia stadium, where Real Madrid had traveled as part of a championship match. He was then copiously insulted by supporters during the match.
Entered into an investigation for “hate crime”, a criminal category including racist crimes, the Spanish police announced three days later the arrest of three supporters aged 18 to 21, thanks to the collaboration of the Valencia club.
The Spanish football disciplinary committee decided to sanction Valencia CF with a partial closure of its Mestalla stadium for five matches and a fine of 45,000 euros.
These incidents had relaunched the debate in Spain on the recurrence of cases of racism for several decades in football stadiums.
With MAP
