Valencia have had their partial stadium closure reduced to three matches and their fine cut to €27,000 following the racist abuse of Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior by fans.
The Spanish Football Federation appeals committee said that it had decided to “partially uphold” Valencia’s appeal.
It means the partial closure of the Mestalla Stadium has come down from five matches, with an initial €45,000 punishment reduced by €18,000.
🎙 @MrAncelotti: “All the support @vinijr has received has been good for him."#RealMadridRayo pic.twitter.com/VHBfODMhIr
— Real Madrid C.F. 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) May 24, 2023
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Vinicius threatened to leave the pitch in the second half of Real Madrid’s LaLiga match against Valencia on Sunday after being subjected to alleged monkey chants from the crowd and Madrid, who said the abuse constituted a “hate crime”, filed a complaint with the Spanish State Attorney General’s Office.
Valencia had 10 working days to file an appeal to the appeals committee.
LaLiga players and officials called for racism to be tackled in Spain in the wake of Sunday’s match.
Before Tuesday night’s games between Real Valladolid and Barcelona, and Celta Vigo and Girona, players from both sides, as well as the match officials, stood behind banners which read “Racism, out of football”.
🇬🇧𝐄𝐍l Meeting between Orlando Leite, Brazilian Ambassador and @Tebasjavier at LaLiga📍.
✋🏾 Both institutions, LaLiga and @EmbBrasilEspana, condemn any kind of racist behaviour.
🤝 Mutual commitment to continue the fight to eradicate racism in sport.https://t.co/dwa2jsCRIZ pic.twitter.com/Pal4XPLHGJAdvertisement— LaLiga Corporativo (@LaLigaCorp) May 26, 2023
Vinicius was set to serve a two or three-match ban after being sent off at Valencia, but Spain’s competition committee – a body formed by one member from LaLiga, one from the Spanish Sports Council (CSD) and one from RFEF (Spanish FA) – has rescinded that red card.
LaLiga, meanwhile, said it would request greater jurisdiction to punish clubs whose fans were guilty of racist abuse after feeling “powerless” at the lack of current sanctions in the wake of the latest Vinicius incident.
According to the country’s law, LaLiga can currently only identify and report incidents, and punishment is rarely handed out.
Four people were arrested in Spain on Tuesday under suspicion of hanging an effigy of Vinicius off a bridge in January.
An inflatable doll dressed in a Vinicius shirt was hung from the railings with a banner that read ‘Madrid hates Real Madrid’ ahead of Real’s Copa del Rey game with city rivals Atletico at the start of the year.
And Spanish police confirmed on Tuesday that four suspects had been apprehended.
