The past few days have been filled with news of racism that was targeted at Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior over the weekend and the Spanish Federation came out yesterday to punish Valencia through a fine and partial stadium closure.
A day after the incident, Vinicius took to his social media pages to express his hurt and disappointment and this caught the attention of La Liga president Javier Tebas who replied to Vinicius in a tone that wasn’t so palatable to the players and his fans. In short, Tebas suggested that Vinicius was being manipulated.
“Before you criticise and insult LaLiga, you need to inform yourself well, Vini Jr. Don’t let yourself be manipulated.” Tebas tweeted in a reply to Vinicius’ tweet. Tebas’ comment was widely criticised by the footballing world, saying that it did not address the issue at hand.
It is because of this that he has now issued an apology after saying that he was misunderstood, and never intended to come off as a racist.
“I think that the message, and the intention I had, was not understood by a significant number [of people], especially in Brazil. I did not want to attack Vinicius, but if most people understood it that way, I need to apologize. It was not my intention, I expressed myself badly, at a bad time.
“But I had no intention of attacking Vinicius, but rather clarifying a situation, because Vinicius had recorded a video supporting LaLiga’s actions. If I hurt someone, they thought I was racist, it’s far from reality.” Tebas told ESPN Brazil.
The Brazilian government came out to condemn the repeated racist abuse that has been directed at Vinicius, especially this season and threatened to take action.
It should be noted that most Brazilian football icons have played in the Spanish La Liga over the years from Ronaldo Da Lima, Ronaldinho, Neymar Jr, Ricardo Kaka, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, and so many others.
