Real Madrid reacts to last night racist chants at Valencia CF!

Attacks of hatred and racism must be eradicated from our society for good and this is what has been voiced by figures from all walks of life and from different national and international institutions after yesterday’s events at the Mestalla stadium.

Our club is grateful to world football’s highest authority, FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who has said that matches where these hate crimes are committed should be stopped and suspended.

We are also grateful to Brazil President Lula Da Silva, who is calling for serious action to tackle this problem and whose victim is, as he said, “a young man who has succeeded in life and who is developing into one of the best footballers in the world”.

His teammates have also expressed their solidarity and support for Vinicius, those at Real Madrid as well as those at other teams around the world. Legends, players and coaches, some of them as prominent on the international scene as Ronaldo Nazario, Mbappé, Rio Ferdinand, Neymar, Kaká, Jadon Sancho, Lineker, Roberto Carlos and Casemiro, as well as dozens and dozens of other world football stars.

The unfortunate events that have occurred have circled the globe and brought shame on our football, as they are reflected and denounced in the mainstream international media. The Washington Post and L’Équipe, to cite just a few symbolic examples, have underlined in a very forceful manner the serious problem facing Spanish football.

And finally, we are surprised by the comments made by the president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, because, as he is the head of Spanish football and the refereeing profession, he has not allowed any decisive action to be taken, in accordance with FIFA protocols, to prevent the situation that has arisen. The image of our football is seriously damaged and marred in the eyes of the whole world.

His inaction has resulted in the helplessness and defencelessness of our player Vinicius. The referees, instead of acting with decisiveness and applying the regulatory protocols, have chosen in the majority of the cases to abstain and avoid taking the decisions that corresponded to them. Yesterday, the referee and those in charge of the VAR evaded their responsibilities and made unfair decisions based on incomplete images, which were not seen completely, which were biased and which resulted in the direct sending off of our player Vinicius Júnior.

Unfortunately, what happened yesterday and the handling of it by the referees and the VAR is not perceived as an isolated incident, but as something that has been happening in many of our matches. The victim who experiences the crime can never be held responsible for the offence.

For all these reasons, we are deeply concerned that no action has been taken by the Spanish Football Federation in this period of time, despite the clear and repeated warning signs that we have been denouncing through our club.