Álvaro Arbeloa and Thibaut Courtois have called on Uefa to take a genuine stand against racism and change football following the alleged racist abuse of Vinícius Júnior by Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s Champions League playoff first leg at Benfica last week, with Arbeloa imploring the governing body to go beyond “just slogans” as the two teams prepare to meet again.
Courtois also expressed his disappointment with José Mourinho for linking the incident to Vinícius’s celebration of the only goal of the game in Lisbon and insisted suggestions that Prestianni’s defence might be that he instead used a homophobic slur would be “just as bad”.
