On October 24, 2021, LaLiga filed the first complaint for racist insults against Vinicius Jr. at the Camp Nou during the classic match between Real Madrid y BarcelonaOn March 13, 2024, the same organization filed the last complaint for xenophobic chants also against the Brazilian footballer. It was in a Atletico Madrid – Inter Milan of the Champions League, where the player was not even there.
There have been 21 complaints for racist acts that have been filed against the striker of Real Madridas a victim. The professional athlete who, by far, is the target of the most xenophobic incidents in our country. The worst thing about this number of complaints is that society does not seem to learn or evolve towards a more tolerant world. What if Vinicius is right?
Exactly a decade ago, 26 racist incidents were recorded out of a total of 1,436 according to the report of the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport. These incidents gradually decreased until 2018/19, when only 3 of 1,206 occurred.
Since then, the numbers have been growing, except for the year of the pandemic, when sporting events were interrupted for a while and then resumed with severe capacity limitations. Thus, in 2021/22, the last season for which data is available, these have grown to 28, the highest number in the last 15 years.
“We are doing well in the fight against racism, but not very well. We need a little more,” Javier Tebas saidpresident of LaLiga, at an event to present the collaboration between the highest body in professional football and the Spanish Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
“Football is a loudspeaker for the bad and the good,” said the minister of the sector at that event, Elma Saizand added that if you don’t fight against it, “very bad things happen to society.” At that event, several athletes who have suffered from this scourge commented that when it comes to racism “there is no grey area.” “Either you are against it or you are racist,” said the former basketball player. Cindy Lima.
Thaylor Lubanzadioanother member of the group, was not only subjected to racist insults when he played in the second division B in Spain, but on one occasion he was sanctioned for four matches for confronting a linesman after going to complain to him about not including the insults he received in the match report. “In 2017 I was young, but it has served to get me involved” admitted the footballer who now plays in Malta.
There are many initiatives that LaLiga carries out to eliminate this scourge. The main one is LaLiga VS, which is a campaign whose objective is to eradicate hatred inside and outside of football. This project includes MOOD, which is a tool to monitor expressions of hatred and take a further step in the detection and eradication of violence in football and society.
Together against racism
Specifically, the highest authority in professional football is going to sign a collaboration agreement with the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration of Spain to provide them with this tool so that surveillance regarding hate speech can extend beyond the framework of professional football competitions.
Recently, LaLiga has obtained the first victory in the courts following the complaint about racist chants Vinicius in Mestalla. The place where everything exploded. The three accused were sentenced to eight months in prison and two years without entering a sports venue.
It has been four years of legal battle since the highest authority of professional football decided to take these incidents to the State Anti-Violence Commission and also to the Prosecutor’s Office for Hate Crimes. Iñaki Williams and the insults he received in Cornellá when he was retiring in January 2020 was the first case in which it was decided to make this change in policy.
“It’s not that Spain is racist, but there is racism in Spain,” he said. Javier TebasThe worst thing is that it seems that the situation has worsened over the years and the main organisations, with LaLiga at the forefront, do not seem to have the solution to stop this sad growth of expressions of hate in our sport.