March 19, (THEWILL)- Real Madrid have escalated the racism controversy surrounding their Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr by filing an official complaint against referee Juan Martinez Munuera.
The Spanish giants accused Munuera of deliberately omitting racist insults aimed at the 23-year-old from his match report after Saturday’s 4-2 win at Osasuna.
Vinicius scored twice in the victory at El Sadar Stadium but was once again subjected to sickening racist abuse from sections of the home crowd. Despite Real’s players highlighting the insults to the officials at the time, Munuera made no mention of them in his post-match documentation.
In a strongly-worded statement on Monday, Real condemned the referee’s actions, stating: “Our club has filed a complaint with the Disciplinary Committee of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) against Munuera for voluntarily and deliberately omitting the insults and vexatious shouts directed repeatedly towards our player Vinicius Jr.”
This represents a significant escalation in Real’s campaign to combat the racist targeting of Vinicius in Spanish stadiums. Last Friday, they lodged a complaint with state prosecutors over alleged racist chanting by Atletico Madrid and Barcelona fans in recent games.
Real reiterated their “condemnation of these violent attacks of racism, discrimination and hatred” and demanded firm action is finally taken “to eradicate the violence that our player Vinicius Junior has been suffering.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
