racism in Spanish football, an ancient evil

It has almost become a routine. Brazilian winger Vinicius Junior suffered racist insults on Sunday, May 21, when his team moved from Real Madrid to Valencia. Once again, one would be tempted to say, so much the Madrilenian – or rather, his skin color – arouses visceral hatred in many Spanish stadiums. Before Mestalla, there were, among others, Barcelona, ​​Valladolid or Mallorca with, each time, “mono, mono” (“monkey”) unequivocally fallen from the stands. Insults qualified as “hate crime” by club meringue, who announced to file a complaint the day after the events.

“We have a problem of behavior, education, racism in our country”, recognized the president of the Spanish Football Federation Luis Rubiales, Monday, at a press conference. Vinicius even went further.“ The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Messi now belongs to the racists”he was indignant in a message on Instagram, ironically attaching the slogan “No es futbol, ​​es La Liga” (“It’s not football, it’s La Liga”), so dear to the sulphurous president of the Spanish Football League, Javier Tebas.

La Liga blame Vinicius

Faced with this situation which tarnishes the image of his championship, the latter has found nothing better than … to castigate the behavior of Vinicius. “We wanted to explain to you what La Liga is doing to act against racism, but you didn’t show up for any meeting programtweeted Javier Tebas on Sunday evening. Before you criticize and insult La Liga, you need to inform yourself.”

The effectiveness of the protocol put in place by the body is struggling to translate into the stadiums, as the cases have multiplied in recent months. A dozen complaints of racism have been filed since the start of the season, as many as in the five previous years. However, these very rarely lead to sanctions. Last December, the Court of Madrid, for example, cleared certain Atlético supporters, on the grounds that their songs – already comparing Vinicius to a monkey – were part of a context of “great sporting rivalry”, the Madrid derby in this case. Real Valladolid, for its part, inflicted on ten of its supporters a heavier sanction (three years of stadium ban) than that promulgated by justice (one year of ban and 4,000 euros fine). Valencia announced in a statement [en espagnol]on Monday, his intention to ban for life people who attacked Vinicius on Sunday.

Pape Cheikh Diop, passed by Lyon, was also the victim of racist insults when he played in Levante, in 2014, during a match against Atlético.“I also suffered from it in France, but it is even stronger in Spainhe narrated for Marca in 2021. No sanction was then taken against the Colchoneros supporters, to whom Diop responded by dancing. “I was even asked for an apology. It says a lot about how the problem is viewed in Spain”, he continued. Other notable episodes, such as throwing bananas against Daniel Alves in Villarreal in 2014 or shouting monkeys targeting Samuel Eto’o in Zaragoza in 2006, had already punctuated Spanish football, without the meetings being arrested.

The far right on the rise

To date, only one match has already been interrupted due to “hate speech” across the Pyrenees, in a very specific context. During a second division match in December 2019, Albacete’s Ukrainian player Roman Zozulya was called a “Nazi” by some supporters of Rayo Vallecano, club marked on the left. The match was called off at half-time.“All situations are different, it is at the discretion of the referee”then explained shortly after Javier Tebas on La Sexta, hiding behind an astonishing “double weight and two measures”.

The man makes no secret of his political opinions: “I know where I am and it’s public: I haven’t voted for many years and since I did it again, I always did it for Vox”he said in El Periodico de Espana . This political formation (the first on this side since the fall of Francoism in 1975) is credited with 15% of voting intentions, according to a GAD3 poll for ABC dated March 2023, making it the third in the country.Vox presents itself as an authoritarian, xenophobic, homophobic and nationalist party”said Lluis Orriols, professor of political science at Carlos III University in Madrid, in The echoes in 2018 . These repeated ambiguous statements from the president of La Liga do not really help to take the measure of the problem.

In 2007, however, Spain adopted a law against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport.“But the problem is that we do not actrelieves Raul Martinez Corcuera, professor of communication at the University of Vic interviewed by AFP in April 2021. We have to close stands, stadiums, we have to clean up.” The road is still long.