VINI JR. Say No to Racism

Este problema ya viene de muchos años antes amigos , no nos engañemos y no pasa nada

Vini Jr nao, the Brazilian World Cup star who plays for Real Madrid club de futbol, was horrendously racially abused during a game versus Valencia on Sunday.

He posted on his social media after the game that in the beautiful game of football/soccer we still don’t do enough to stop this abhorrent abuse. 

This is even not only stopped in Valencia. In front of Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid’s stadium, a poster of Vini was torn - damaged, according to Nills Kern (around 2.20 pm Madrid, today, May 24th 2023). Some people really have some big problems in their head. No need to tell you who's face this was, and I can't remember it has been like this in the last week.

Let’s all be clear that this is not just a Spanish thing, the same thing happened at the euros in the 2020 Euro final (but 2021 —because covid 2020) at Wembley when three black players (Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling, Marcus Rashford) missed penalty kicks. It happened recently in Italy with one of the AC Milan strikers too (Rafael Leao, 24 days ao to be ambassador for PRADA - adidas, of course PRADA from Milano and Rafael Leao is adidas ambassador).

My point is a simple one: this is 2023 and I stand for equality and inclusion regardless of the brand or the company and we have to join our voices when something is wrong and just say out loud that this is wrong. Sport is for everyone and whether you are a professional being paid 500K per week or a kid playing in the playground you should not be subjected to this because of the color of your skin. If this guy goes through that in front of millions of people on the football pitch, imagine what individuals face in their everyday life.

Remember this is 2023.

- No player deserves to be racially abused, ever.

- Tribalism and pettiness only make this harder to solve.

- Words have consequences.

- Spain is better than this.

- We cannot, must not, allow the racists to win.

Ancelotti: "No se puede jugar al futbol asì. Es demasiado grave esto, tiran un balon en la cancha, insultan todo el tiempo a Vinicius, y le sacan la roja a el. De que estamos hablando? Estamos en 2023 no puede haber racismo. Tenemos que ir a casa". "Si a un jugador le gritan mono, y un entrenador tiene que pensar en quitarlo es que hay algo que no va en la Liga. La Liga tiene un problema. Con el racismo hay que parar el partido. Si un estadio grita mono, hay que parar el partido. Se lo dije al abritro"

Sure, education and laws may or may not eradicate racism. But that shouldn't stop football from controlling what it can control: what happens in its own stadiums. It would be wonderful to eliminate racism across society. But while we wait for that to happen, I think football's priority should be to simply eliminate racist abuse in stadiums. (As well as ethnic, homophobic or religious abuse)

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Prada/writer has dark skin, although not like Vini. Maybe I'll get racial abuse (NOW) if I’m in Valencia or Madrid.