Two incidents of racism once again tainted Spanish football on Saturday March 30. Ironically, these events occurred a few days after a friendly match “for tolerance” between Spain and Brazil, organized Tuesday in Madrid in response to the racist insults suffered by Real’s Brazilian striker, Vinicius Junior, since his arrival in 2018.
On Saturday, during a third division match, the Senegalese goalkeeper of the Rayo Majadahonda club, Cheikh Kane Sarr, was sent off in the 84the minute against Sestao River after an altercation with a supporter behind his goal, pushing his team to leave the field and the referees to stop the match. According to the Spanish press, several supporters of Sestao River, near Bilbao, insulted Cheikh Sarr, 23, after their team’s second goal at the end of the match.
“Our team will not resume the match after our player was the target of unacceptable racist insults”wrote Rayo Majadahonda on the X platform.
“An absolute shame”
“It’s an absolute shame what happened today… Part of the stadium uttering racist insults against our teammate Cheikh Sarr, because of the color of his skin”regretted for his part the captain of Rayo, Jorge Casado, on Instagram. “What a shame, it seems crazy that it’s 2024 and we have brainless idiots in the stadiums running amok… We are all Sheikh, no to racism”he added.
The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said one of its bodies would decide what action to take following the incident. “The match was suspended after an incident between supporters (…) and Cheikh Sarr (…) who declared that he had been the subject of racist insults without any member of the refereeing, given their position on the ground, cannot hear them »she said in a press release.
Referee Francisco Garcia Riesgo “suspended the match when the players of the visiting team decided to leave the field due to the aforementioned events, without the referee being able to put into practice the anti-racist protocol since the Madrid team refused to continue playing”she justified.
“Monkey” and “gypsy”
A little earlier in the day, Sevilla FC, which plays in La Liga – the Spanish first division – had already condemned “racist and xenophobic insults” suffered during his match in Getafe by the Argentinian Marcos Acuna and by the coach Quique Sanchez Flores.
The referee of the match that went to completion, Javier Iglesias Villanueva, wrote that Getafe fans had shouted “Acuna monkey” And “Acuna, you come from monkeys” towards the Argentina international, which led him to briefly interrupt the match.
Sevilla coach Quique Sanchez Flores said he had been treated like a “gypsy” by some supporters and said he was proud of his origins. “It’s one thing to be gypsy or part-gypsy, and another to use it as a racist insult – I find it abhorrent”he commented.
Vinicius Junior outraged
These two incidents caused a reaction from the Brazilian Vinicius Junior, who is frequently the victim of racism on Spanish lawns. “We had three vile cases of racism in Spain this Saturday alone”regretted the Real Madrid player on the social network.
“In Sarr and Rayo Majadahonda, may your courage inspire others, racists must be denounced and matches cannot continue with them in the stands”added the Seleção star. “We will only have victory when the racists leave the stadiums and go straight to prison, a place they deserve”concluded Vinicius Junior.
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