Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior joins new FIFA task force to tackle racism in football

Vinicius Junior, who plays for the Brazil national team, has been subject to continued racist abuse by fans in Spanish stadiums throughout La Liga 2022-23.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino (R) with Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior. (Image: FIFA/Twitter)

Zurich: Vinicius Junior, the star of Brazil and Real Madrid, has agreed to join a new task force to tackle racism in football, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on Thursday.

Vinicius has been the subject of continued racist abuse from fans in Spanish stadiums throughout the season, with referees or football associations doing little to protect him. That has to stop, Infantino said in an Instagram post after meeting the player at a Brazil training camp in Spain.

“There is no football if there is racism! So let’s stop playing,” Infantino wrote. “We will also strengthen engagement with players on this crucial issue, so I am pleased that Vinicius has accepted to be part of a task force that will include other key players and develop concrete and efficient measures to end racism in football once and for all. and end it forever.”

FIFA set up an anti-racism task force in 2013 after a notorious incident of abuse in Italy by AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng, who is black.

Boateng worked with the task force that FIFA shut down in 2016, months after Infantino was elected. FIFA then said the task force had “completely fulfilled its temporary mission”.

Infantino said on Thursday more needs to be done to enforce football’s current three-step policy of stopping matches when players are racially abused. He also called on fans pursuing racial abuse to be “banned from stadiums around the world”.

“We want to identify racists in stadiums and on social media. They are criminals,” said the FIFA leader. “The authorities must take these people to court and we will say to all of them: racism is a crime.”