Three Valencia fans have been sentenced to eight months in prison after being found guilty of racially abusing Brazilian forward, Vinicius Junior, during a match between Valencia and Real Madrid at the Mestalla in May 2023.
During the match, which Real Madrid went on to win 1-0, the game was suspended after Vinicius Jr made his way over to a section of the Valencia crowd to pinpoint an individual who had been relentlessly racially abusing him throughout the match.
The incident understandably gained plenty of traction online with the incident becoming major news across the world. Not least because after the match, the Brazilian stated that he believed racism was ‘normal' in La Liga and called on authorities to properly deal with the problem.
At the time, Valencia were ordered to play five matches without fans in their South Stand, where the racist abuse came from, but it did little to prevent further racist attacks on players in Spanish football. Vinicius himself has been the victim of several attacks while in April 2024, Atletico Madrid fans targeted Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams.
La Liga respond to Valencia fans being jailed
The guilty verdict for the three Valencia and their subsequent punishment of eight months in jail and a two-year ban from football stadiums could turn out to be a groundbreaking moment in Spanish football's battle against racism.
Three Valencia fans have been sentenced to 8 months in prison and banned from entering a stadium for 2-years for racially abusing Vini Jr in May 2023 👨⚖️🚨
This is the first criminal conviction for racist abuse of a footballer in Spain 👏🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/Vzuup1dCyq
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) June 10, 2024
La Liga president Javier Tebas has long been accused of being too lenient on cases related to racism but earlier today, he praised the sentencing. He said:
“This ruling is great news regarding the fight against racism in Spain. It redresses the wrong suffered by Vinícius Júnior and sends a clear message to those people who go to a football stadium to hurl abuse. La Liga will identify them, report them and there will be criminal consequences for them.
“I understand that there may be some frustration at the length of time it takes for these sentences to be handed down, but this shows that Spain is a country that guarantees judicial integrity. LaLiga can only respect the pace of justice, and once again demand that Spanish legislation evolves so that LaLiga has sanctioning powers that can speed up the fight against racism.”