Prestianni, sanctioned six games for “homophobic behavior” in his incident with Vinícius

The SL Benfica footballer Gianluca Prestianni has been sanctioned with a six-game suspension, three of them subject to a probationary period, for his “discriminatory homophobic conduct” towards the Real Madrid forward in the first leg of the ‘Playoff’ for access to the round of 16 of the Champions League at the Estádio da Luz, UEFA confirmed this Friday.

This was announced by the governing body of European football after the investigation opened after the incidents reported by the Madrid attacker on the day of the match, held on February 17, in which he reported that the Argentine footballer had called him “monkey.” However, the statement states that the insults were not racist, but rather homophobic.

“The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) has decided to suspend Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni from a total of six official UEFA club and/or national team matches for which he would otherwise be eligible, for homophobic discriminatory conduct,” UEFA said in a statement.

However, the suspension of three of these matches is subject to “a two-year trial period” from the date of the decision. The sanction includes the provisional suspension of one game that the player served during the second leg of the Round of 16 Playoff on February 25 at the Santiago Bernabéu. In addition, UEFA will request that FIFA extend the sanction worldwide.

In that match, after scoring 0-1 in Lisbon, the Brazilian approached the match referee, Frenchman François Letexier, to indicate that Prestianni had insulted him in a racist manner after having started an argument with him.

The referee proceeded to activate the protocol for these cases and the match was stopped for a dozen minutes before resuming later. Prestianni denied at all times having racially insulted Vinícius Jr., while Real Madrid’s French forward, Kylian Mbappé, assured the media that he had called his teammate ‘monkey’ up to five times.

Weeks later, in an interview with Telefe, Prestianni confirmed that he had called him a “faggot.” “For Argentines it is a normal insult. They call me a racist when I have never been one nor will I ever be one. For us Argentines it is a normal insult to say ‘cagón’ or ‘faggot’,” he noted.