La Liga
Factbox: Racism in Spain and La Liga – was Vinicius Jr’s case unusual?
Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward Vinicius Jr has called La Liga and Spain racist after receiving racial slurs from the stands in Sunday’s defeat at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium.
Spain is not alone in suffering from racism in its stadiums.
Racism has been a long-running problem in Italian football, where authorities have also been criticised for not taking sufficient action. In April, 171 Juventus fans were given stadium bans for chanting racist abuse at Inter Milan striker Romelu Lukaku during a Coppa Italia semi-final earlier that month.
France national team players, including star forward Kylian Mbappe, were racially abused online after they lost the World Cup final to Argentina, and England’s Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka were similarly abused after missing penalties in the Euro 2020 final.
The following are some of the most significant episodes involving racism in recent Spanish football:
APRIL 2000
Malaga’s Dario Silva faced battery charges after punching an Oviedo fan who had allegedly hurled anti-Black slurs at him when the Uruguayan striker declined to sign autographs.
NOVEMBER 2004
During a Spain-England friendly at the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, England’s Andy Cole, Rio Ferdinand, Jermaine Jenas, Jermain Defoe and Shaun Wright-Phillips were subjected to racist chants imitating monkey noises by Spanish fans. FIFA imposed a fine of 100,000 Swiss francs ($112,498.59) on the Spanish football federation RFEF.
NOVEMBER 2004
Barcelona forward Samuel Eto’o received a yellow card after lobbing a ball at Getafe fans following monkey noises from the stands. The Cameroonian would go on to celebrate some of his goals that season by making ape-like gestures parodying the racist chants.
MARCH 2005
Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope punched an “ultra” fan from his own club, Malaga, after a small group hurled racist slurs at him and made monkey noises following a match against Real Betis.
APRIL 2005
A banana was flung at Espanyol goalkeeper Carlos Kameni at Atletico Madrid’s Vicente Calderon stadium.
FEBRUARY 2006
Barca’s Eto’o threatened to leave the pitch in protest against racist chants at Real Zaragoza’s La Romareda stadium, though ultimately stayed on. The club was fined 9,000 euros ($9,907.20).
APRIL 2014
Barcelona defender Dani Alves had a banana thrown at him as he was about to take a corner kick at Villarreal’s El Madrigal stadium. Alves peeled the fruit and took a bite. A 26-year-old man was later arrested and charged with a “breach of fundamental rights and civil liberties”, fined 6,000 euros and banned from attending football matches for two years. Villarreal were also fined 12,000 euros.
AUGUST 2016
Referee Carlos Clos temporarily suspended a match between Sporting Gijon and Athletic Bilbao after racist chants against Bilbao striker Inaki Williams. RFEF’s Competition Committee ordered the partial closure of one of the stadium’s stands.
DECEMBER 2019
A second-division match between Rayo Vallecano and Albacete became the first to be cancelled because of offensive chants directed at players. Left-wing Rayo ultras had called Albacete’s Roman Zozulya – a white Ukrainian striker – a “nazi”. La Liga backed the referee’s decision saying it was “against all racism and xenophobia” in football.
JANUARY 2020
Racist chants against Bilbao’s Williams at Espanyol’s Cornella-El Prat stadium sparked the first xenophobic hate crime trial in Spanish football, with only one fan indicted. Prosecutors are seeking two years in prison, a fine and a stadium ban for him in the ongoing trial.
APRIL 2021
Valencia’s Mouctar Diakhaby said rival player Juan Cala cast racist insults at him at the Ramon de Carranza stadium in Cadiz. The entire Valencia squad left the pitch for a few minutes but later returned without the French defender to avoid a penalty. La Liga later said it had found no evidence Cala directed racist language at Diakhaby.
JANUARY 2023
Spanish police launched a hate crime investigation after an effigy wearing Vinicius Jr’s No. 20 shirt was hung from a bridge in front of Real Madrid’s training ground ahead next to a banner in Atletico Madrid’s red and white colours that read “Madrid hates Real”.
FEBRUARY 2023
La Liga filed a legal complaint after Vinicius Jr was racially abused by Real Mallorca supporters. In response, Mallorca withdrew a fan’s membership card for three years.
-Reuters
Barcelona said their request for a permit to return to the Camp Nou for Sunday’s LaLiga match against Real Sociedad has been denied, with the city council highlighting safety and security issues with the revamped venue.
Barca had been hoping to return to a reduced-capacity Camp Nou with 27,000 spectators but have failed to obtain the necessary permits from Barcelona City Council.
Barca will instead host the match at the Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium in Montjuic, where they played during the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons with renovations at Camp Nou now nine months behind schedule.
“We have spotted different elements that need to be fixed and have an impact in the safety and security of the stadium,” chief of civil protection Sebastia Massague said at a city council meeting.
Barca had to begin their LaLiga home campaign at the Estadi Johan Cruyff in their own training complex, where only 6,000 fans attended their match against Valencia on September 14, after a Post Malone concert left the Lluis Companys pitch in poor condition.
“The club is currently working on the new amendments that the council has shared today,” Barca said in a statement.
On Friday, the Catalan club also announced that their Champions League group stage match against Paris St Germain on October 1 would also take place at the Lluis Companys.
Barca are second in LaLiga, trailing leaders Real Madrid by five points but having played a game fewer.
-Reuters
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Villarreal midfielder Thomas Partey on Wednesday appeared in a London court and pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and sexual assault involving three women.
Partey, a Ghana international, is accused of five counts of rape relating to two women, plus a charge of sexual assault against a third woman, between April 2021 and June 2022.
The alleged offences took place when Partey played for Premier League soccer club Arsenal. He left the club this summer and signed for Spain’s Villarreal.
The 32-year-old appeared in the dock at Southwark Crown Court and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth and enter his not guilty pleas.
Partey was released on bail ahead of his trial, which was listed for Nov. 2, 2026 and is due to take between six and eight weeks.
He was signed by Arsenal from Atletico Madrid for 50 million euros ($59.2 million) in 2020 and became a key member of the English side’s first team, before his contract expired at the end of June.
Partey played for Villarreal in their Champions League game against Arsenal’s bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night.
He came on as a second-half substitute and was booed loudly by the Spurs fans every time he touched the ball.
-Reuters
Villarreal and Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey, who has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault, walks outside Southwark Crown Court, in London, Britain, September 17, 2025. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska
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Real Madrid on Tuesday denounced plans to stage a LaLiga match between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami, warning the proposal could undermine football’s competitive balance and vowing to petition global governing bodies to block the move.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Monday approved the December 20 fixture at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, which could become the first LaLiga match held abroad and the first European league fixture staged in the United States.
“Real Madrid wish to express to its members, supporters and football fans in general its firm rejection of the proposal,” the club said in a statement, revealing they have already urged FIFA, UEFA and Spain’s Higher Sports Council (CSD) to intervene.
The club accused the RFEF of making its decision “without informing or consulting the clubs participating in the competition” and argued that staging the match in Miami “violates the essential principle of territorial reciprocity” in home-and-away league formats.
Real further stated that the move would “alter the competitive balance” and grant “an unfair sporting advantage” to the clubs involved.
The club also warned that approving the proposal could compromise sporting integrity and “set an unacceptable precedent,” insisting any change of this nature should require “the express and unanimous agreement of all the clubs participating in the competition”.
The plan still requires approval from UEFA, US Soccer, CONCACAF and ultimately FIFA before LaLiga President Javier Tebas can realise his long-held ambition of taking Spanish football to the U.S.
-Reuters
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