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Valencia newspaper hits out at Real Madrid again after Vinicius Jnr racism

  /  autty

Valencia's local newspaper has once again hit back at claims the football club's fans are racist in the wake of Real Madrid star Vinicius Jnr being abused.

The Brazilian winger was targeted during a LaLiga match at Valencia's Mestalla stadium last Sunday - just the latest time the 22-year-old has been abused.

Valencia were hit with a five-game partial stadium closure and fined £39,000 by the Spanish football federation following the Vinicius incident - but they plan to appeal the 'totally unfair' sanction.

Real Madrid said the incident on Sunday constituted a 'hate crime' and later filed a complaint with the Spanish State Attorney General's Office.

The Valencia-based sports newspaper Super Deporte have run a campaign insisting the club's fans and the city is not racist, going so far as to describe Vinicius as 'the spoiled child of Real Madrid.'

On Thursday, a striking front cover featured the word 'No' in giant red letters, with a number of other lines underneath.

While some read 'no to racism,' 'no to injustice' and 'no to discrimination', others took aim at Real Madrid, their president Florentino Perez and what the paper described as a 'campaign' against Valencia.

'No to Florentino's machinery', 'no to [manager Carlo] Ancelotti's lies' and 'No to the unprecedented punishment against Mestalla' were some of the front page messages.

They concluded with: 'No to more grievances, no to the campaign against our city and no to the story of Madrid.'

The newspaper clearly feels Valencia is being unfairly targeted despite Vinicius suffering racist abuse on 10 occasions this year.

On Tuesday, Super Deporte ran the headline 'Enough already' and in a lengthy editorial claimed the hosts were the real 'victims' from the incident.

The article included excerpts such as: 'Using racism to cover other miseries is completely unworthy. The players, in addition, must be good professionals.

'And while it's not a justification for anything at all, they still shouldn't behave in an arrogant way towards the public.

'It is still a fact that eight of the nine complaints filed in Antiviolencia from LaLiga for racism have been for insults to that same footballer.

'Racism, intolerance, xenophobia and hatred are intolerable. And so is, even if we are criticised, the manipulation and the smokescreen deployed from Madrid.

'Here we defend Valencia, we are going to continue doing so and we are not afraid of anything or anyone.'

Further comments made in the article suggested that Vinicius 'is the spoiled child of Real Madrid' and is a 'footballer who does not learn' from his issues.

And their campaign continued on Wednesday with another front-page piece which railed against the stadium closure.

Their headline read: 'Mestalla is not racist and the closure of the Mario Kempes stands is unprecedented.'

They also wrote on their front page: 'Racism is a scourge that must be eradicated from football and society.

'The insults against Vinicius (or whoever) must not only be condemned but also persecute and punish the perpetrators, as Valencia has done well together with the police.

'You don't play with racism, hatred and xenophobia. That is why what to condemn is the instrumentalisation practiced by Real Madrid. The damaging bell over Mestalla, Valencia, and the entire city is completely intolerable.

'So Ancelotti's apologies are late because the damage has already been done. And the partial closure of the stadium is unfair and another grievance.'

Real fans applauded Vinicius and chanted his name in a show of support in the 20th minute of their win over Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday night.

It came after Vinicius' team-mates wore the No 20 during the warm-ups as a show of strength and fans unveiled a banner at the Bernabeu that read: 'We are all Vinicius, enough already!'