CNN –
Embattled LaLiga president Javier Tebas repeated a racial slur towards fans towards Real Madrid star Vinícius Jr while discussing the incident at a press conference on Thursday.
Tebas spoke to the media in the days after Vinícius suffered sustained racist slurs from some Valencia fans during a game at the Mestalla Stadium.
“We are very aware and very focused – not only in the fight against racism – that Vinícius is the subject of insults. Why? Because he’s a great player,” Tebas told reporters.
“The great players like Cristiano Ronaldo and [Lionel] Messi is the one who has taken the most insults – in one case for homophobia and the other for intellectual disability. Why? Because they are great players,” Tebas continued.
“If a fan gets mad because Vini is so good, instead of saying ‘f**king Black’ as the king of Spain.” [Juan Carlos I] agreed [then Venezuela president Hugo] Chávez in his time [2007]: ‘Why don’t you shut up?'”
Alberto Saiz/AP
Vinícius during the game against Valencia.
According to the referee’s report of Valencia’s 1-0 win over Madrid on Sunday, a fan shouted “monkey, monkey” to Vinícius in the second half.
Video footage of the game by DAZN Spain also reveals that the Real Madrid star was subjected to various other racial slurs during the game, including the slur Tebas repeated at Thursday’s press conference.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) ordered a partial stadium ban for five games at Valencia’s Mestalla Stadium and a fine of 45,000 euros (around US$48,489) for the incident.
Fans and players from around the world showed their support for Vinícius through social media posts, gestures and pre-match banners throughout the week.
After RFEF President Luis Rubiales admitted earlier in the week that Spain has a racism problem, Tebas said he was “concerned” about the situation around racial slurs in Spanish football.
“If I didn’t worry, I’d be crazy, right?” he said. “Obviously I’m worried and I’m going to work on it, we’re going to work on finding a solution to this image problem because football is… Spain is not racist, Spanish football is not racist.”
“LaLiga has worked and will continue to work to fight against these behaviors – racial slurs, homophobic, whatever – in our stadiums. But of course it worries me and of course we have to work on it.”
Javier Soriano/AFP/Getty Images
A banner at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium reading ‘We are all Vinícius, enough is enough’ ahead of Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday.
Vinícius has been racially abused in the stands during ten La Liga games in the last two seasons. On Tuesday, seven people were arrested in connection with racial slurs against the Madrid star this season.
According to Spanish police, four young men have been arrested for allegedly hanging an image of Vinícius on a bridge in Madrid in January. Three other men have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in racial slurs against the Brazilian during Sunday’s game against Valencia.
Both incidents are being treated as hate crimes.
The Spanish league has been criticized for not adequately combating racist abuse in stadiums. In a statement released on Tuesday, LaLiga said it was officially calling for sanctioning powers to be granted to better tackle racism in Spanish football.
LaLiga says it cannot currently penalize clubs or fans for racial slurs and can only escalate reports of slurs to RFEF committees or regional prosecutors, who treat them as legal cases before imposing sports penalties.
A doll featuring Vinícius’ shirt hung on a bridge near Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground ahead of a Copa del Rey derby against Atlético Madrid in January.
“As for sanctions as a sanctioning authority – in Spain we’ve never had that because it’s in the national sport law, including the new national sport law and the sports disciplinary regulation… There is no deduction of points.” [as a punishment for racist incidents]only if there are wrong statements.
“Only in these cases, not in racist incidents. [Guidelines for racist incidents] like in the English Premier League, for example, where you can take points with you [for racist abuse].
“In Spain there is a state-regulated sport discipline, so we can’t do that [currently]. Would it be good if we thought about changing this so there could be point deductions? I think so.”
During his question-and-answer session, Tebas was asked if LaLiga employs black people and replied that the organization doesn’t count the number of black people working for the organization because “if we did count, that would be it.” [looked upon as being] bad.”
“But since I travel a lot, we have a black employee with us in Angola. As I said, I don’t count them. I saw some black people in the digital department,” he said.
“Like I said, I don’t count them. Yes, yes, there is, but we don’t count them individually. But the question is unusual. Do I know the stats, how many? I know it by gender. How many blacks do we have? Well, I don’t know, but we also have Asians working for us. If I started counting black people, you would call me a racist.”