Another Take: Will Spanish football tackle its racism problem?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2024
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on May 26, 2023. None of the dates or references from that time have been changed.
Three Valencia fans have been sentenced to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to racially insulting Real Madrid football player Vinícius Júnior. In May 2023, the fans were filmed chanting the racial epithet “monkey” at the Afro-Brazilian player after an altercation on the pitch.
In this episode:
- Moha Gerehou (@MohaGerehou) Journalist and Anti-Racism Activist
- Tim Vickery (@Tim_Vickery) Football Journalist Based in Brazil
Episode credits:
This episode was updated by Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Sonia Bhagat, Ashish Malhotra, Miranda Lin, Alexandra Locke, and our host Malika Bilal.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our lead of audience development and engagement is Aya Elmileik. Adam Abou-Gad is our engagement producer.
Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer, and Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
Connect with us:
@AJEPodcasts on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Threads and YouTube
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi, this is Salil Khalili, a senior producer at The Take, coming to you with another take, where we resurface stories from the archives. |
| 0:20.0 | Today, we're in Spain, looking at racism in football. |
| 0:24.8 | Three Valencia supporters have been sentenced to eight months in prison. |
| 0:29.6 | They also won't be allowed to enter football stadiums for two years. |
| 0:34.5 | The fans pled guilty to racially insulting Real Madrid football player, Venetius Jr. |
| 0:41.2 | This is the first conviction for racism-related cases in professional football in Spain. |
| 0:47.6 | The fans were detained after a match between Real Madrid and Valencia in May of last year. |
| 0:54.6 | Back then, we spoke with two football journalists to unpack the story. Here's our episode from May 23. All dates and references are from that time. |
| 1:20.5 | It's match day in Spain, and the Valencia Stadium is roaring. |
| 1:26.1 | For 70 minutes, the team has been holding off one of the best in Spain's top football league, La Liga. |
| 1:29.3 | Valencia leads 1-0, and they need the win. |
| 1:33.5 | But all of a sudden, the game stops. |
| 1:38.4 | At the center of attention is Real Madrid player Benetius Jr. |
| 1:43.3 | The 22-year-old Afro-Brazilian is a superstar. |
| 1:47.0 | He always brings electricity to the game. |
| 1:50.0 | If you are an opposing fan, he's the one that you want to stop. |
| 1:54.0 | And in this moment, he has stopped. |
| 1:58.0 | Venetius points to members of the crowd and gets into a heated conversation with some fans. |
| 2:02.6 | A huge section of them are calling him a monkey. |
| 2:06.6 | It's not the first time something like this has happened. |
| 2:10.6 | Venetius has been the subject of multiple racist incidents this season. |
... |
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