Following the racist abuse suffered by Vinicius Junior during Real Madrid’s match against Valencia on Sunday, LaLiga and the RFEF have joined forces to launch an anti-racism campaign.
As part of this, before every fixture in matchday 36, the two sets of players, as well as the match officials, have held up a banner saying “racists, (get) out of football”.
Every player has participated in this so far, apart from Valencia’s Mouctar Diakhaby. The Guinean defender, who missed the match against Real Madrid due to suspension, did not hold up the banner ahead of Valencia’s fixture against Mallorca on Thursday, and was instead seen going through his pre-match warm-up just behind it.
Parece que @Diakhaby_5 no es muy amigo de la @rfef y @LaLiga y sus campañas contra el racismo, por algo será. #Amunt @valenciacf pic.twitter.com/jxN7vXF7Ct
— ⚡🦇Corbin🦇⚡ (@Coorbinadas) May 25, 2023
Diakhaby, who publicly supported Vinicius following the incident on Sunday, claimed that he was racially abused by Cadiz’s Juan Cala during a match in 2021, although LaLiga later said that there was no evidence to this having happened, which sparked outrage at the time.
The Valencia players have walked off the pitch at the Carranza 🦇
Mouctar Diakhaby was visibly angry after an altercation with Cadiz's Juan Cala, and ultimately left the pitch with his teammates following behind him pic.twitter.com/3XKvm5Y9dc
— Viaplay Sports UK (@ViaplaySportsUK) April 4, 2021
Y sí, por supuesto que apoyo a @vinijr contra los insultos racistas que recibió de algunos aficionados . Y espero que mi club haga lo necesario para sancionar fuertemente a los que cometieron estos actos ..
no decir nada es ser cómplice
✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
— Mouctar Diakhaby (@Diakhaby_5) May 22, 2023
Diakhaby clearly hasn’t forgotten about the inaction from LaLiga and the RFEF over that incident, which is likely to have prompted the Valencia defender’s decision to not partake in their campaign.
“Diakhaby, who publicly supported Vinicius following the incident on Sunday, claimed that he was racially abused by Cadiz’s Juan Cala during a match in 2021, although LaLiga later said that there was no evidence to this having happened, which sparked outrage at the time.”
This is exactly what I mentioned in a comment written hours before this one, in article “Real Madrid accused of taking advantage of racial abuse to tarnish La Liga’s image”.
Im by no means an oracle.
So, is RM really trying to take advantage of racial abuse to tarnish Ligas image or is Liga trying to brush those incidents under a carpet and mix up the theses by accusing RM?
I think answer is pretty obvious.
Liga needs to deduce points for these type of incidents, regardless of whos affected; and you will notice a “collective re-education” of those guilty by decent angry supporters who dont want to see club lose points thanks to a bunch of ldlots. Make an example on couple of them and you will see how people will think twice before they chant something like this.
If its a massive number of supporters – automatic loss and no supporters allowed for 10 games. Be my guest!