Ian Wright slams football authorities over Vinicius’ racism incident

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By Martin Graham | 24th May 2023

Ian Wright has hit out at the top footballing authorities for not taking racism serious and urged players to leave the pitch after Vinicius Junior again subjected racist abuse.

The Real Madrid forward suffered an alleged racist attack during Real’s 1-0 LaLiga defeat to Valencia on Sunday.

Valencia say police were quick to identify a fan who made racist gestures at Vincius and that individual now finds him/herself facing a lifetime stadium ban from the Mestalla after a race crime complaint filed by Real Madrid.

The game took a pause after the break as Vinicius pointed out to the referee those who were allegedly abusing him in the stands. The Brazilian later took to social media to air out his frustration, saying that in his country, Spain is known as a country of racists’.

Wright wants more action to be done on racisim after Vinicius incident

Wright sympathized with the 22-year-old, who is thinking about a Real Madrid exit after the incident, as he said on his podcast: “Seeing him helpless, it’s a horrible feeling, because that has happened to everyone that has been racially abused.”

“You literally can’t do anything, Your teammates will try and console you, but they can’t feel the hurt inside, to the point where he’s crying.”

“There’s no slogans left, no campaigns left. When you look at one should be done, we’ve seen the pitiful punishments that’s been given out to federations, to clubs, paltry sums.”

On what should be done about racism in football, the former Arsenal striker added: “I think the time now is for [players to say] “I’m not playing”, and walk off.”

“The only thing that they worry about is the money, if they walk out and they don’t play, they start worrying.”

“People say “oh you can’t walk off because [the racists are] winning”, but they are winning.”

“Football is not going to stop being racist, they’re always going to be racist. But when you start point deductions, taking countries out of tournaments, they will stop.”

“How far are the authorities willing to go to say we’re serious about racism? Because they’re not serious.”

It would not be the first time Vinicius has suffered racial abuse in Spain and many are now calling for more action to be taken on perpetrators of something that has had a negative impact on football down the years.

Several prominent names have stood in support of Vinicius, including Barcelona boss Xavi Hernandez, however LaLiga president Javier Tebas has controversially claimed that Vinicius is unfair about branding the league as in ‘support of racism’.