- Puma supports Vinicius Jr. after racist insults in a LaLiga match.
- Vinicius denounces racism in Spain and LaLiga after receiving insults in the stadium.
- Real Madrid files a court complaint for a hate crime in the case of Vinicius.
Puma, sponsor of the Valencia club, gave its explicit support to Vinicius Jr, Real Madrid striker, after the player was at the center of racist insults in the LaLiga match that both starred in Spain last Sunday.
Vinicius said that the competition and Spain itself is still “racist”, after receiving (once again) racist insults from the Valencian stands at the Mestalla stadium.
The player who is also part of the Brazilian soccer team showed in a video on his social networks how the fans on Sunday, but also others on other playing fields, insult him permanently and nobody does anything.
In the case of the game against Valencia, it caused the game to be suspended for 15 minutes and the striker ended up sent off.
Puma, a sports company that is part of the Adidas group and which sponsors Valencia, showed its solidarity with Vinicius. “At Puma, we do not tolerate racism, we condemn discrimination in any of its forms and we stand in solidarity with Vinicius Júnior and with the football community in general in condemning the events of this Sunday”, the company said in a statement sent to Reuters.
The Santander bank, meanwhile, whose main sponsorship of LaLiga ends this season, also said it supported the striker: “Santander energetically rejects racism and discrimination in any of its forms”, The bank said that it has a strong presence in Latin America.
A few hours earlier, the president of the Spanish Soccer Federation, Luis Rubiales, said that soccer in Spain has racism problems, in line with the criticisms of the Brazilian government headed by Lula.
At each ride away from home an unpleasant surprise. And foram muitas nessa season. Death wishes, boneco enforcado, many criminal cries… Everything registered.
More or speech always fell into “isolated cases”, “um torcedor”. No, these are not isolated cases. No episodes… pic.twitter.com/aSCMrt0CR8
—Vini Jr. (@vinijr) May 22, 2023
Before Puma’s statement, Real Madrid went to court for the Vinicius case
On the morning of the same day, Real Madrid had filed a lawsuit to investigate the insults to their player as a “hate crime”.
“Real Madrid CF expresses its strongest rejection and condemns the events that occurred yesterday [por el domingo 21 de mayo] against our player Vinícius Junior. These facts constitute a direct attack on the model of coexistence of our social and democratic State of law, ”said the text that was released by the club.
And it added: “Real Madrid considers that such attacks also constitute a hate crime, for which reason it has filed the corresponding complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office, specifically with the Prosecutor’s Office against hate crimes and discrimination, so that Investigate the facts and determine who is responsible.”
In his publication on the networks, Vinícius said that the racist abuse of “inhumans” and asked LaLiga advertisers and TV channels to hold LaLiga responsible.
Other sports voices, such as Rio Ferdinand, the Frenchman Mbappé, the Brazilian Ronaldo and the head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, gave their support to Vinicius.
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