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.
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.
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.