Real Madrid and LaLiga announce an investigation into the racist insults against Lamine Yamal and Raphinha at the Bernabéu | Soccer | Sports

Lamine Yamal and Raphinha received racist insults this Saturday in one of the corners of the Santiago Bernabéu. According to videos recorded by fans and uploaded to social networks, the two Barcelona players could hear shouts such as “fucking black”, “fucking Moor” and “sell handkerchiefs at the traffic light”. The events occurred first in the celebration of Yamal’s goal in the 77th minute, the 0-3and later when the young culé approached a corner kick that Raphinha was going to take.

Real Madrid issued a statement of rejection for these events and announced an investigation. “The club strongly condemns any type of behavior that involves racism, xenophobia or violence in football and sport, and deeply regrets the insults that a few fans uttered last night in one of the corners of the stadium. “Real Madrid has opened an investigation in order to locate and identify the authors of these regrettable and despicable insults, in order to adopt the relevant disciplinary and judicial measures,” the entity published early this Sunday, shortly after they began to circulate these videos recorded in one of the corners of the stadium.

LaLiga, for its part, He warned that he will also report “immediately the insults and racist gestures received by the Barcelona players before the Hate Section of the Information Brigade of the National Police”, in addition to informing the Prosecutor of the Court Coordinator of the Hate Crimes and Discrimination Unit of the State Attorney General’s Office.

At Barcelona, ​​they assure that they are working on the actions to take. “We are studying how to proceed,” explain sources from the Barça entity. Yamal had been applauded by the fans who came to the Bernabéu in the friendly he played with the Spanish team against Brazil last March. But in the context of a classic and with the defeat that the culés punished the whites, the local anger led to xenophobic insults. The referee of the match, Sánchez Martínez, did not record in the minutes these insults that were made public through social networks, despite the fact that one of his assistants was in the corner when Lamine and Raphinha were rebuked.

First convictions for xenophobia in stadiums

This 2024, in Spain there will be the first convictions for racist insults on a football field. There have been three and all of them have had Vinicius as a victim. The first, and most symbolic due to the global repercussion of the events that occurred in May 2023, came last June, when three Valencia fans They were sentenced to eight months in prison for a crime against moral integrity aggravated by hatred for the xenophobic insults uttered at Mestalla against the Brazilian. The three also signed a letter at the request of Real Madrid in which they apologize to the player, the club and “all those who may feel offended.” In addition to the prison sentence, which will not be carried out as long as the young people do not commit crimes in the next three years, the sentence prohibits them from accessing stadiums that host matches organized by LaLiga and/or the Federation. The judicial decision came after an agreement between the prosecution and the defense.

The second was related to insults that both the Madrid winger and his teammate Antonio Rüdiger received for comments in a newspaper forum Brand. One person was also sentenced to eight months in prison and blocked from participating on the media platform for 20 months.

And last September, a court in Palma sentenced a man who made racist comments against Vinicius and Samu Chukwueze, of Villarreal, to one year in prison and three years of banning access to stadiums in two different games at Son Moix in just two weeks of February 2023. Both complaints, promoted by LaLiga, were resolved with convictions for two crimes against moral integrity and aggravated by discrimination with racist motives. The judge also applied the mitigating circumstance of repentance of the accused, who wrote a letter to Vinicius, according to Madrid. In addition, he agreed to participate in an equal treatment and non-discrimination program.

In this third sentence, the judge also included the insults to the Madrid player Aurélien Tchouameni and the throwing of water bottles at him by a minor in the match on April 13, also in Son Moix. The boy promised to apologize and carry out socio-educational activities proposed by the Minors Section of the Palma Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. He must also pay 4,000 euros for racist insults, 3,001 euros for throwing objects and will not be able to access stadiums in matches organized by LaLiga and the Federation for a calendar year.

A month ago, the Provincial Court of Seville ordered reopen the investigation against a man for throwing racist insults at Vinicius during the match played on March 5, 2023 at the Villamarín between Betis and Madrid. The magistrates upheld LaLiga’s appeal against the dismissal of the case that the investigating court had agreed to.