The symbolic gesture he made at the beginning of March occurred almost a year after the Real Madrid forward ended up crying in the same stadium after racist insults from Valencia fans.
The incident sparked a wave of support for the Brazilian striker, who is black, and led to calls for the Spanish authorities and society to take further action.
At the time, many believed it would be a turning point in the fight against racism in Spanish football.
But 10 months later, Vinicius continues to be the subject of racist abuse in Spain despite the initial clamor after the incident at Mestalla.
The Brazilian broke down and cried when referring to the insults before Tuesday’s friendly duel between Spain and Brazil, which was originally going to be played under the motto “One Skin.”
“Things have gotten worse since I first reported what was happening to me,” he said. “Because people haven’t been punished, they think they can keep saying things because of my skin color and try to affect my game. But they could do it another way and it wouldn’t have a problem. “I just want to play and I want to be able to go to the stadiums without being bothered because of the color of my skin.”
The meeting between Brazil and Spain will occur days after a new wave of racist insults against Vinicius throughout the country.
“We are not making complete progress,” admitted Esteban Ibarra, president of the Movement Against Intolerance, Racism and Xenophobia. “There is a response, in more serious cases, but there is no in-depth progress. In the end, if the dominant sensation is impunity, Well, it will continue as before.”
On the night of March 2, the same day that Vinicius gave the Black Power salute at Mestalla, the Brazilian press reported that a child called the player a monkey in the stadium. The Spanish League was analyzing video of the incident, although it is not clear from images posted online whether the Brazilian was the target.
A few weeks ago, reports emerged of racist chants directed at Vinicius outside the Atlético de Madrid and Barcelona stadiums before Champions League matches, although Real Madrid was not playing.
Vinicius retweeted a video in which several Atlético fans are seen jumping and singing “Vinicius chimpanzee”. A day before, Barça fans supposedly chanted “Vinicius, die.”
“I hope they have already thought about their punishment, Champions League and UEFA. It is a sad reality that happens even in games where I am not present,” Vinicius published at the time on the social network X, formerly Twitter.
Reports also emerged of hateful chants of “Vinicius, die,” at Madrid’s La Liga match at Osasuna on March 16. Madrid called the referee “negligent” for not including the chants in his match report. The club reported them — as well as the chants of Atlético and Barcelona fans — to the hate crimes prosecutor’s office.
“It is not pretty to see when these cases occur. We must continue fighting to eradicate racism, we must fight day by day so that it does not happen to Vinicius or any other player,” said Spanish defender Álex Grimaldo on Sunday.
Vinicius has become an easy target:
Some of Vinicius’ rivals maintain that his casual style of play – which is common for a striker – and his clashes with his rivals have made him a target of rival fans. It is common for Vinicius to get into altercations and more than once he was seen responding to fans who provoked him from the stands.
There has been progress in cases against fans accused of insulting Vinicius last year, including four Atlético fans who allegedly hung an effigy of the player on a Madrid bridge.
They were taken into custody as part of a wave of arrests following the incident at Mestalla and prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison sentence.
Other cases against fans who have insulted Vinicius and other players continue in court, but Spain is still waiting for the first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse in a professional match. The trial against the Espanyol fan who used racist insults against Athletic Bilbao striker Iñaki Williams in 2020 was expected to take place last year, but they are still waiting.
A man accused of calling Vinicius a monkey during a league game in Mallorca last season could also go to trial. Both the player and the fan appeared in front of a judge last year and the player assured that he will not accept an apology.
The Spanish government has highlighted the work of the permanent committee to fight against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport. The committee, which includes members of the Spanish league, authorities and the Football Federation, previously punished clubs with fines and stadium bans, as well as preventing certain fans from going to the stadium for long periods.
The Spanish league has actively denounced racism to the prosecutor’s office.
Source: AP
