A fan has been fined €60,001 (£50,686; $66,707) and banned from sports stadiums for two years by Spain’s Superior Sports Council (CSD) for racially abusing Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior online.
The CSD confirmed on Tuesday that the “very serious sanction” had been handed down in response to the fan’s comments on social media platform X, and added that the details would be “passed on to the Prosecutor’s Office in case they constitute a hate crime”.
It was judged that the fan had made “numerous insults of a racist nature and images of the same nature” against Vinicius Jr.
The 24-year-old Brazil international has been targeted with racist abuse from opposition fans in stadiums and on social media platforms.
In March, the forward broke down in tears during an emotional press conference as he said that racism was getting worse because perpetrators were going unpunished and he felt “less and less like playing football”.
In June, three people were sentenced to eight months in prison in Spain after being found guilty of racially abusing Vinicius Jr in May 2023 during a La Liga fixture at Valencia.
That was the first conviction for racist insults in a football stadium in Spain.
(Denis Doyle/Getty Images)
