Real Madrid have lodged a complaint against the referee overseeing Saturday’s victory against Osasuna, alleging that incidents of racist abuse directed at forward Vinicius Jr were omitted from his match report.
The club alleges that referee Juan Martinez Munuera deliberately omitted the “insults and vexatious shouts” directed at Vinicius Jr.
Osasuna, however, denies any occurrence of racist chants from their fans. Vinicius has unfortunately been a target of racist abuse in Spain on numerous occasions in recent years.
Real Madrid is calling for the “necessary measures” to be implemented to eradicate such abuse. The Spanish Football Federation’s technical committee of referees has been approached for their input on the matter.
Real said: “The referee voluntarily and deliberately omitted the insults and vexatious shouts directed repeatedly towards our player Vinicius Jr, despite these being insistently pointed out by our players at the very moment when they were taking place.
“Real Madrid once again condemns these violent attacks of racism, discrimination and hatred, and demands that the necessary measures be taken, once and for all, to eradicate the violence that our player Vinicius Junior has been suffering.”
The 23-year-old scored twice in a 4-2 win that moved Real Madrid 10 points clear at the top of La Liga.
Osasuna acknowledged that a minority of their fans aimed insults at Real players but insisted they “had no racist references”.
“Given the information published in the media after Real Madrid’s press release, which presents El Sadar [stadium] with racist behaviour, Osasuna wants to clarify that no racist chants were uttered [during] Saturday’s match,” Osasuna said.
“The club will not tolerate the tarnishing of the reputation of the Osasuna fans, who, throughout its history, have been known for their anti-racist stance.”
Real Madrid has included the recent incident in a complaint lodged with Spanish legal authorities on Friday concerning alleged racist taunts directed at Vinicius by fans of Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. A video circulating on social media purportedly depicts Atletico Madrid supporters chanting a racial slur before their Champions League match against Inter Milan on Wednesday, while Real Madrid claims similar chants were heard from Barcelona fans ahead of their clash with Napoli the preceding day.
The Brazilian international has unfortunately faced several instances of racist abuse in recent seasons. Notably, during Real Madrid’s derby victory over Atletico in September 2022, Atletico condemned the “unacceptable” chants by a “minority” of fans directed at Vinicius outside their stadium before the match. In June of the same year, four individuals were fined 60,001 euros (£51,700) and handed a two-year stadium ban for hanging an effigy of Vinicius near Real Madrid’s training ground in January 2023.
Additionally, three individuals were fined 5,000 euros (£4,300) and banned for one year for making racist gestures during Real Madrid’s match at Valencia in May of the same year. This season, there have been reports of further incidents of racist abuse directed at Vinicius during Real Madrid’s matches at Sevilla in October, at Barcelona the following week, and at Valencia earlier this month.