In first division stadiums, on modest soccer fields during a children’s friendly match, at the patron saint festivities of a small town… These are just three of the latest scenarios where racist behavior and hate attacks have once again become rampant. Nothing new, but a clear and worrying indicator (due to the concatenation of cases in a short space of time) of a reality that has been repeated too many times.
Few days have passed since the racist chants against Vinicius in the match between Atlético and Real Madrid, for that scene to be repeated, this weekend, in another football event. In this case a children’s friendly match. The one that faced the team from Sant Vicenç de Castellet (Barcelona) with the Pirinaica from Manresa. The age of the players? Between 12 and 13 years old.
Emulating what was experienced with Vinicus, from Real Madrid, in a soccer cathedral like the Cívitas Metropolitano, a group of kids between the ages of 11 and 14 began to imitate the movements of a monkey, while reproducing guttural sounds, every time they a player from Pirinaica de Manresa (away team) touched the ball. A player, like Vinicius, of the black race.
The effort put in by those precocious spectators emulating the movements and sounds of an orangutan in a modest soccer field, with children on the grass, has nothing to envy – witnesses of that scene affirm – to what was seen and experienced in the stands of the Atlético stadium from Madrid.
Mimetic behaviors, with a difference. Vinicius (this in no way justifies the attack) is, although young, an adult. And he has many more resources at a psychological level and football background to overcome the situation, than that 13-year-old boy from the Pyrenees, who has been very affected – they reveal from his surroundings – by that xenophobic attack.
The coach of Pirinaica Manresa, Carles Rusca, told RAC1 yesterday on the program El Món. At the end of the game he “was pretty screwed up”, but the next day “he was better”.
The Pirenaica Manresa coach decided to end the game, although at first the referee, Rusca revealed in that same interview, let him know that the game was over because his team decided to leave the pitch. Later he did record in his minutes the existence of those racist insults.
From the Sant Vicenç de Castellet regrets, in a statement, what happened. And the events that are already known to have been carried out by a group of very young people (between 11 and 14 years old) who are now being identified are being “condemned”.
The board of the local team – it was in their field where the events occurred – promises in that same statement that, once all the information has been collected, “it will act firmly, adopting all the necessary measures.”
Unfortunately, these behaviors are not isolated events. As affirmed from the environment of these two children’s teams – with players of different origins – racist insults and behaviors imitating monkeys when a black player touches the ball are repeated much more than desired. Most of the time they are very punctual attacks and the thing does not go any further.
Now it would have to be the Catalan Federation and the Mossos – if there is a complaint – that take action on the matter to eradicate these criminal behaviours.
