Real Madrid eased to a 2-1 win over Braga in the Champions League on Wednesday night, remaining perfect through three matches. Yet the game ended in scenes of conflict, as defender Antonio Rudiger seemed upset with one of the Braga assistant coaches, causing a back and forth between the two, which ended up involving players and coaches from both sides.
After it had been rumoured that Rudiger had been racially abused by the coach in question, the German defender took to Twitter in order to clear up the incident, saying there was no racism, referring to it as a ‘little dispute’.
However Cadena SER, despite acknowledging this, have stuck by the idea that racial abuse was involved, as Antonio Romero described.
“The information comes from someone close to what happened with Rudiger. The German centre-back denies it because it does not want to add fuel to the fire, as confirmed by a person who was there at the time of what happened.”
It’s certainly a curious contradiction. Naturally Rudiger is free to deal with the incident as he pleases, but it generally goes against the usual strategy of raising awareness and highlighting how problematic racism is.
This of course comes after Vinicius Junior was racially abused by two Sevilla fans on Saturday, and Barcelona Director Mikel Camps calling Vinicius a clown, saying there was no racism involved.
