The epidemic of racial abuse in La Liga reached visceral and skin-crawling levels at times last year, and one of the most disappointing aspects was the relative youth of the culprits. In particular, during a match between Real Madrid and Rayo Vallecano, one fan made a racial gesture towards Vinicius Junior.
Occurring last February at Vallecas, the abuser in this case was underage, and was caught on camera with no effort from those around him to take action. Earlier this year there was an historic ruling which saw three young men given a prison sentence for racial abuse at a football match, the first of its kind.
In this instance, Cadena Cope say that Vinicius has settled with the guilty party out of court. They have sent a written apology to Vinicius, and have committed to 40 hours of educational work to be adjudicated by the public prosecutor. The 16-year-old is also banned from La Liga matches for a year.
Vinicius has suffered greatly from racial abuse in the last few years, and has not backed down in the face of it, instead taking it upon himself to demand harsher punishments and a change in the conversation.