Will Spanish football tackle its racism problem?

Real Madrid striker Vinicius Jr is speaking out after racist attacks this season. Will La Liga take action?

Carlo Ancelotti, Head Coach of Real Madrid, interacts with Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid during the LaLiga Santander match between Valencia CF and Real Madrid CF at Estadio Mestalla on May 21, 2023 in Valencia, Spain
Carlo Ancelotti, Head Coach of Real Madrid, interacts with Vinicius Junior of Real Madrid during the LaLiga Santander match between Valencia CF and Real Madrid CF at Estadio Mestalla on May 21, 2023 in Valencia, Spain [Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images]

Vinicius Junior, a star footballer for Real Madrid, says Spain’s top league “now belongs to racists”. The Afro-Brazilian player’s declaration comes after a match in which opposing fans from Valencia were filmed chanting the racial epithet “monkey” at him after an altercation on the pitch. This is not the first time Vinicius has been targeted by racial abuse this season, and he has called out Spain’s La Liga for being complicit. Will this latest incident prompt the league to act?

In this episode: 

  • Moha Gerehou (@MohaGerehou) Journalist and anti-racism activist
  • Tim Vickery (@Tim_Vickery) Football journalist based in Brazil

Episode credits:

This episode was produced by Sonia Bhagat with Ashish Malhotra and our host, Malika Bilal. Miranda Lin fact-checked this episode.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Tim St Clair mixed this episode.

Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Munera Al Dosari and Adam Abou-Gad are our engagement producers.

Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

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@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Source: Al Jazeera

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