Spanish police have announced the arrest of four people in connection with the hanging of a Vinicius Junior effigy in January, which occurred in the lead up to a Madrid derby.
The incident occurred either late on the 25th or in the early hours of the 26th of January close to Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground. Parallel to a popular highway, a banner was hung with the words ‘Madrid hates Real’ with a black doll wearing a Vinicius shirt dangling beneath it.
While investigations had been ongoing for some time, many were shocked it took so long to bring in the culprits, with nearly four months passing between the incidents and the arrests. Given Vinicius again was racially abused on Sunday, in an incident that was picked up by the international media, the timing does not look coincidental.
The police revealed that the four arrested people were aged 19, 21, 23 and 24, and were all involved in a radical fan group. They say they were identified during ‘high risk’ games, using police surveillance.
This is at least a small step towards justice on what looks like an increasingly long road to tackling racism in Spanish football. Unfortunately, these attitudes look rather more pervasive than they seemed a year ago.