Real Madrid asks Spanish prosecutors to investigate latest racist chants targeting Vinícius
Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during a Spanish La Liga soccer match between Real Madrid and Celta Vigo at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, on March 10, 2024. Real Madrid has filed a complaint with Spanish state prosecutors asking them to investigate the reported racist chants aimed at forward Vinícius Júnior outside the stadiums of Atletico Madrid and Barcelona before their Champions League games this week. Madrid said Friday March 15, 2024 that it asked the prosecutors to request footage from security cameras outside the two stadiums in order to “identify the authors of the racist insults and hate speech.” Credit: AP/Manu Fernandez
MADRID — Real Madrid has filed a complaint with Spanish state prosecutors asking them to investigate the reported racist chants aimed at forward Vinícius Júnior outside the stadiums of Atletico Madrid and Barcelona before Champions League games this week.
Madrid said Friday that it asked prosecutors to request footage from security cameras outside the two stadiums “in order to identify the perpetrators of the abuse.”
On Thursday, Vinícius retweeted a video that showed Atletico fans jumping and chanting “Vinícius chimpanzee” before the team played Inter Milan on Wednesday. The video was initially published by the site Agente Libre Digital.
There were also reports of hate chants against Vinícius before the Barcelona-Napoli match on Tuesday. Spanish radio Cadena SER published a video in which Barcelona fans chanted “Die, Vinícius,” before the team’s 3-1 win.
“Real Madrid condemns these violent attacks of racism, discrimination and hate against our player Vinícius Junior, which have sadly been a recurrent and ongoing concern for some time,” the club said.
The Spanish league said on Thursday it would report the incident to the prosecutor’s office for hate crimes.
Vinícius, who is Black, has been regularly targeted by racist slurs during away games in Spain, especially in the last two seasons.
In 2023, Atletico fans hanged an effigy of Vinícius from a bridge in Madrid before a city derby. Prosecutors sought four-year prison sentences for the four hardcore fans accused by authorities of committing the act.
