‘We have to fight against racism’published at 23:10 GMT 17 February
FT: Benfica 0-1 Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid boss Alvaro Arbeloa, speaking to Amazon Prime about the incident with Vinicius Junior: “You have to ask Benfica’s players, it is not a question for me.”
On if that is because of what is alleged to have been said to Vinicius Jr: “Yes. I think everyone can see what happened with Prestianni. He put his shirt in his mouth and now you have to ask him.”
On what Vinicius Jr said to him: “What Vini said is not important. I think we need to fight against racism. It is the most important thing now in football. We support Vini now, of course, and now you have to ask them.
“Of course we have to fight against this type of attitude and to focus on football, but first we have to fight against things like that. We have to fight, especially the footballers. If we don’t respect each other it is difficult.”
On whether Vinicius Jr needed to be persuaded to come back on: “We spoke with him. He wanted to play, he wanted to help the team. He wanted to continue on the field and we fight until the end.”