Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has ripped apart the idea that Vinicius Junior provokes any of the racial abuse he receives.
That anyone would use provocation as a justification for racial abuse is highly problematic as it is, but it definitely is an argument that has been used in the past in Spain, to at the very least nuance racial abuse.
Speaking ahead of Real Madrid’s tie with Rayo Vallecano, Ancelotti explained that he wanted more drastic measures to be taken.
“I think so. Because if you are going to apply the protocol, it has to be applied when the bus arrives at the stadium.”
“That’s the end of those who say he’s a provocateur, which he is not… and it’s not an isolated case. There are not 46,000 and I apologise, but there are neither one nor two. The protocol must be applied two hours before the game and during the game. It is obsolete.”
Not only against Valencia was this the case, with the first major flashpoint of racial abuse towards Vinicius Junior this season occurring in September. Atletico Madrid fans were heard singing that Vinicius was a monkey outside the ground too, and as Ancelotti points out, there is nothing he could have done to provoke any abuse at that point – as ridiculous as it is that some justify racism through that.
