Vinícius, 23, responded to the news on Monday by warning “other racists” to “be afraid, ashamed and hide in the shadows.” Otherwise, he wrote in a social media post, he would be “here to collect.”
“Many asked me to ignore it,” the striker wrote in Portuguese (via Reuters), “others said my fight was in vain and that I should just ‘play football.’
“But as I have always said, I am not a victim of racism. I am the executioner of the racists,” he continued. “This first criminal conviction in Spanish history is not for me. It is for all black people.
Right after the incident, Vinícius said that in his native Brazil, Spain was “known as a country of racists.” The Valencia-Real Madrid match was temporarily halted after Vinícius drew attention to the ruckus, and his team subsequently filed a hate crime complaint with Spanish authorities.
Real Madrid said on Monday that the three fans, whom the team described as “young people”, had written a letter of apology to Vinícius, his team and anyone else who “felt denigrated and offended by their behavior “. In addition, they reportedly asked other supporters to “banish all vestiges of racism and intolerance” during future matches.
La Liga said the fans were punished for violating a provision of the national penal code regarding “criminal offenses against moral integrity”, punishable by sentences of six months to two years in prison. The case in question, according to the league, also included an aggravating factor of racial discrimination.
“The judgment handed down today, which is final, establishes as proven that the three defendants insulted Vinícius with cries, gestures and songs referring to the color of his skin,” declared a Spanish court. “These cries and gestures of a racist nature, consisting among other things of the repetition of sounds and the imitation of monkey movements, provoked in the footballer feelings of frustration, shame and humiliation, with the consequence of an attack on his intrinsic dignity.”
“This conviction is excellent news for the fight against racism in Spain,” La Liga president Javier Tebas said in a statement, “since it repairs the damage suffered by Vinícius Jr. and sends a clear message to those who go to a football stadium to insult that La Liga will detect them, report them and there will be criminal consequences for them.
The racist ruckus came several months after an effigy of Vinícius appeared in Madrid shortly before his team played a game against crosstown rival Atlético Madrid. When the incident occurred in Valencia, La Liga said it had already filed nine complaints on his behalf, detailing discriminatory treatment. The episode galvanized other players and many fans, who showed support for Vinícius, but he said in March that things had “got worse” for him since he began speaking out against racism because “the people are not punished.”
“They feel like they can keep saying things about the color of my skin,” he said in March, “to try to influence the way I play. … I just want to play and I want to be able to go to stadiums without anyone bothering me because of the color of my skin.
On Monday, after the fans’ condemnation, Vinícius expressed his gratitude on social media to La Liga and Real Madrid for “their help in this historic conviction.”
News Source : www.washingtonpost.com
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