Three Valencia fans have been sentenced to eight months in prison for hate crimes against Real Madrid’s Vinícius Júnior, in what La Liga described as the first conviction related to racist abuse at a football match in Spain.
The ruling goes back to a match in May last year during which several Valencia fans hurled racist slurs at the Brazilian footballer. The match came to a halt for several minutes as Vinícius pointed to a Valencia fan in the stands, telling his teammates that the man had called him a monkey and made the gestures of an ape.
