La Liga hit back at Vinicius Junior criticism over protection from racism

La Liga have rejected criticism from Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior over an alleged lack of protection from racism.

Vinicius called out the Spanish officials after Saturday's victory over Real Valladolid, in which racist chants could be heard from the Valladolid fans, as he argued not enough was being done to punish fans who are found guilty of racism.

In response, La Liga president Javier Tebas openly rejected Vinicius' complaints and put together a lengthy list of evidence of the league's responses to previous examples of racist abuse.

"At La Liga, we have been fighting racism for years," Tebas wrote. "Vinicius is very unfortunate but it is unfair and not true to publish that La Liga does nothing about racism."

A league statement read: "Before the statements of Vinicius Junior, a Real Madrid player, on his social netwoeks, making a comment in which he alludes to the lack of action by La Liga in the fight against racism, La Liga detected racist insults from someone from the stands of the Estadio José Zorrilla and on social networks.

"These events will be reported to the Anti-Violence Commission and the Hate Crimes Prosecutor's Office, as has been done on other occasions in which La Liga, after investigating racist behaviour inside and outside the stadiums, has led the fight against this type of act."

The statement then proceeds to list, at length, the details of a number of previous investigations. Three involve Vinicius himself, while there are also examples concerning former Cadiz defender Carlos Akapo as well as Inaki and Nico Williams.

"La Liga will continue to lead the fight against the scourge that is violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport, not only with words but also with deeds, as demonstrated by the actions that have been exposed," the statement concluded.

"The objective of La Liga is zero violence in sport and for this purpose different prevention, detection and complaint practices are carried out each day, which are transferred to the State Commission against Violence, Racism, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Sport, as well as the RFEF Competition Committee.

"In the same way, La Liga denounces any criminal proceeding related to violent acts that occurred in the field of football."