Luis Rubiales, the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), criticised his La Liga counterpart for his retaliation to Vinicius just hours after the winger was abused by Valencia fans on Sunday.
Vinicius vented his anger on social media by saying racism is “normal” in La Liga and Tebas responded: “Before criticising and insulting La Liga, you need to inform yourself properly, Vinicius.”
Rubiales, however, took Vinicius’ side on the matter as he argued that discrimination is indeed an issue in Spain and urged the likes of Tebas to listen to the Brazilian instead of jumping on the defensive on social media.
“We have a problem in our country, the first thing is to recognise it. Behaviour, education, racism. As long as there is a single fan, an undesirable or a group of them who insults by sexuality, by skin colour, by creed, we have a serious problem that stains an entire team, a hobby, a club and a country.
“We are a very welcoming country that receives millions of visitors every year, people from all over the world, footballers and fans. Vinicius Jr. and any footballer, woman or man who suffers an insult, in this case due to racism but also due to orientation sexual or creed, you have my support, that of the federation. We are here to support and help and to ask them to help us improve.”
He added: “I ask Vinicius to ignore the irresponsible behaviour of the president of La Liga who gets on social networks in an entanglement with a footballer who hours before has received racist insults.
“Probably Vinicius is more right than we think and we all need to do more about racism.”
Vinicius, 22, hit back at Tebas over his response to the situation, saying: “Once again, instead of criticising racists, the president of LaLiga appears on social media to attack me.”
He added: “Omitting yourself only makes you equal to racists. I am not your friend to talk to about racism. I want action and punishment. Hashtag does not move me.”
After the Brazil international made the referee aware of the racist chants at the Mestalla, the game was temporarily suspended. In the dying minutes, Vinicius was shown a red card for hitting Valencia attacker Hugo Duro.
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti came to the attacker’s defence, saying the game had to be stopped and that he considered taking him off the field because of the abuse.
Valencia, meanwhile, condemned the slurs hurled at the Madrid star and have promised lifetime bans for the culprits as they launched an investigation into the matter. Source: goal.com
