Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has offered advice to Benfica following Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr reporting alleged racist abuse.
Carragher referred to the racism incident between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra to provide guidance to Benfica. Vinicius Jr. reported the alleged abuse to the referee during their Champions League clash with Benfica on Tuesday night.
The Real Madrid forward scored the only goal in a 1 0 win for his team, before receiving a booking for excessive celebrations. Shortly after, Vinicius approached referee Francois Letexier to report that Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni had racially abused him.
Vinicius later shared a statement about the alleged abuse, while Prestianni denied making any racist remarks in his own post.
Benfica’s official X account uploaded a video from the sidelines showing Prestianni pulling his shirt over his mouth before allegedly saying something to Vinicius. The club claimed that none of the Madrid players could have heard the words, even though Eduardo Camavinga and Kylian Mbappe were nearby.
“As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard,” Benfica stated.
Carragher has now shared his view on the situation, drawing on his experience at Liverpool during the racism controversy involving Suarez and Evra.
Suarez received an eight game ban after being found guilty of racially abusing Evra in a 1 1 draw between Liverpool and Manchester United in 2011.
Liverpool initially supported Suarez, even wearing t shirts backing the striker at their next match. It was not until 2020 that the club issued an official apology to Evra.
Carragher delivered that apology, and now he has used his past experience to advise Benfica.
“Most people in football now are looking at the situation, and looking at Benfica, and thinking that they’ve got this horribly wrong,” Carragher said on CBS Sports alongside Thierry Henry, Micah Richards, and host Kate Scott.
“Sometimes when you’re inside a football club, your judgment’s clouded [and] you back your player no matter what the situation, and even with something as so serious as racism.
“I’ve been there as a player inside a football club, we had a situation like this where I think the whole of football was looking at us, and thinking that we got it totally wrong at Liverpool. An incident between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra 10 15 years ago.
“It took a long time for us inside the club to accept that we got this badly wrong.
“Thierry [Henry] mentioned there will be an investigation, there was an investigation then at that time, and it came out what Luis [Suarez] had said.
“I was on a TV show with Patrice Evra a good few years later and apologised that we, as a football club, had got this totally wrong, and the club followed suit as well.
“If there is an investigation, and hopefully there is, we can get to the bottom of it.
“I think that most of us feel that what happened was really unjust to Vini Jr. And, if there is an investigation, I just hope in time that Benfica and the people around that club can apologise if the accusation is right, but also realise some of the things they got involved in themselves – putting a tweet out hours after, trying to question the validity of Vini Jr and the Real Madrid players – has been poor. And hopefully, if it comes out the way we think is what happened, they [Benfica] apologise.”
