Barcelona have apologised for a tweet from one of its spokesman making light of the racism suffered by Vinicius in last weekend’s game between Real Madrid and Sevilla.
Mikel Camps took to social media during Real Madrid's 2-1 win against Braga on Tuesday night to post a later-deleted tweet which read: 'It's not racism, he deserves a slap for being a clown. What do these unnecessary and meaningless stepovers represent in the center of the field?'
The comment came after Vinicius suffered incidents of racist abuse in the away draw at Sevilla with the Spanish club congratulated by the player for swift action in banning one of the spectators responsible.
Barcelona director Rafa Yuste said on Wednesday: ‘If Vinicius is listening to me, I tell him that this will not happen again. Even if it was a slip of the tongue it shouldn’t have happened. It was an unfortunate tweet.’
The comments should diffuse a tense situation between the two clubs going into Saturday’s Clasico. After making it nine points from nine in the Champions League coach Xavi does not need distractions from a rogue spokesman.
‘If he deleted it then that’s that,’ said the Barça coach. ‘We want a Clasico with fair play and mutual respect and I will not be doing anything to increase tension.’
His team beat Shakhtar Donetsk comfortably thanks to goals from Ferran Torres and Fermin Lopez.
‘I feel very comfortable with Xavi,’ said Fermin who might even have played himself into the manager’s Clasico starting XI with his goal and performance. ‘I feel very comfortable either on the left or on the right. I've always been very small, but I have good timing. You never expect things to work out so well, but I've worked all my life for this.’
Joao Felix hobbled off but Xavi confirmed that it was a knock that was unlikely to keep him out of the Clasico.
Barcelona were missing Jules Kounde, Pedri, Frenkie De Jong, Raphina and Robert Lewandowski in the 2-1 win and only the Polish forward is expected to return on Saturday.
Xavi said: ‘If we bring back one of the injured players for Saturday it will be a positive but we will not force anyone.’