Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby has accused La Liga of playing favourites when it comes to their dealing with racism in and around stadiums.
Diakhaby was allegedly racially abused by Cadiz defender Juan Cala in April of 2021 during the game, something Diakhaby brought to the attention of the officials at the time. He and Valencia went off the pitch, but were told by the referees that they risked losing points if they did not return. Diakhaby himself sat out the rest of the game, and no action was taken against Cala during or after the match after there was no evidence found against him, as per the investigation.
Speaking to Superdeporte (via Diario AS), Diakhaby said that Vinicius Junior received different treatment when he was racially abused this past season.
“When my story happened, for me LaLiga did not do what was necessary, but when the Vinicius thing happened… Real Madrid have more things… and there they do go to investigate more.”
“LaLiga tries to do things, but in my case, it is my opinion, they tried to hide my problem, but not fix it. Hide the problem. If there is a problem, you have to face it and sanction and take action.” LaLiga right now I see actions that improve, but with my story, for me, they did not do what was necessary. Too easy. Valencia did well, of course, you have to make quick and strong decisions. Valencia did quite well. Vinicius is Vinicius, but declare what? There is proof, images and they have to sanction people.”
There has been uproar in Valencia over comments (which were retracted in both cases) by Carlo Ancelotti and then Rodrygo Goes saying that the whole stadium was chanting racial abuse at Vinicius in May this year. Diakhaby steered away from the idea that the entirety of Mestalla was racist.
“No, Mestalla is not racist. If that’s what you want to know? No, Mestalla is not racist. I’m not going to hide things. I am a person that when I see something I cannot say that it has not happened, but you cannot also say that it was the whole stadium. I from the stands did not hear it. We have seen, like everyone else, videos that there were groups, but it cannot be said that Mestalla is racist. I have never felt strange things in Mestalla.”
Equally, Diakhaby rejected Vinicius’ assertion on social media that Spain is a racist country.
“Spanish football is not racist, but there are people who are racist. It’s different. Things can happen in Spain on a football pitch, yes, and you can go places and things are said to you, yes. In any country where I am, I will tell the truth, but I cannot say that Spain is a racist country, that is false. It depends on the people.”
Mestalla has since received a sanction of a partial stadium closure for the next five games where the recorded incidents happened.
“It didn’t seem fair to me because they closed an important part of Mestalla, we don’t have to pay for some people who think badly or make gestures, but it is true that things have to be done for people to realise it. If you don’t do those things, what are the outsiders going to say? You have to sanction and it was our turn. Someday it will be the turn of other stadiums, but you have to penalise people so they don’t come back to the stadiums. The club cannot be penalised because of a few people.”
There is an argument that La Liga did very little to tackle racial abuse towards Vinicius initially, and only after the first five or six incidents were punishments and sanctions handed out.
Equally, there is no doubt that Real Madrid hold more sway than Valencia, both in the realms of power and in the media. The attention attracted by Vinicius was far greater than the incident involving Diakhaby and La Liga began to act with more of a firm hand when the international pressure grew, rightly or wrongly.
