La Liga to file complaint against Barca for racial abuse of Vinicius

La Liga is preparing to lodge a complaint against Barcelona for the alleged racist chants directed at Vinicius during the match against Real Madrid.

This season’s first El Clasico between Barcelona and Real Madrid took place at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, a first-time honor for the temporary replacement of the Camp Nou.

Barcelona quickly grabbed control of the game as Ilkay Gundogan opened the the scoring after ten minutes. That is, until Jude Bellingham tied the score with a screamer in the 68th minute and then won the match by scoring in the dying minutes of the clash.

Despite Los Blancos’ victory in El Clasico, there were racial incident claims involving forward Vinicius, thus the game wasn’t without controversy.

What happened to Vinicius at El Clasico?

The supposed incident occurred during stoppage time, after the Englishman’s winning goal. In front of an enthralled Blaugrana crowd, he made the most of his opportunity to leave the field during the injury time.

The 23-year-old strolled off the field at a leisurely pace, glancing towards the stands to celebrate.

He raised his fists in the air as Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti guided him off the pitch by taking his arm. “He came off very calmly, I told him he had to come off a bit quicker … I helped him off”, said the Italian coach following the final whistle.

COPE claims that the fans in the Montjuic stadium reacted angrily to it, with racial taunts audible throughout the home stand. There were ‘monkey’ chants coming from all throughout the stadium.

A banana is also said to have been thrown at the Real Madrid player in videos that surfaced on social media showing Barcelona supporters harassing the Brazilian striker in a racist manner.

What did La Liga and Barcelona say?

As a result, La Liga have taken notice of the conduct exhibited by Barcelona fans and is reportedly planning to file a formal complaint with the competition committee.

They are seeking that either the fans involved or the Catalan side themselves take action against the individuals responsible, possibly through bans or fines.

The Spanish league released a statement saying: “La Liga has been working from the outset to identify the individuals involved in making racist insults and will file the relevant charges as is always the case. We are coordinating with the Mossos d’Esquadra [Catalan police] and FC Barcelona.”

“FC Barcelona will always defend the values of football and sport such as respect for the opponent and we will investigate any racist insult that may have occurred this afternoon during the match against Real Madrid,” the Catalan outfit said in their own statement.

For Vinicius, who was the victim of racist taunts during Real Madrid’s match against Sevilla just last week, it has become an all too familiar scenario. The Brazilian praised Sevilla for their prompt response during the game when they expelled a supporter and reported them to the police.

Eight instances of racist abuse directed against Vinicius Jr. were recorded and reported to La Liga during the previous campaign. He was also required to testify earlier this month in a trial involving three Valencia supporters who are charged with racist abuse against him during the previous campaign.

Photo credit: IMAGO / ZUMA Wire