Benfica slammed over social media post dismissing Real Madrid players’ account of Vinicius Jr racism incident | OneFootball

Benfica have been slammed for a social media post that dismissed the accounts of Real Madrid players that supported Vinicius Jr after the Brazilian alleged to have been racially abused.

Vinicius had an altercation with Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni after scoring the only goal of the game before rushing over the referee to tell him he had been the subject of racist abuse. The match was then paused following Uefa’s three-step racism protocol.

The Brazilian’s Real Madrid teammates vocally came out in support of him after the match, with Kylian Mbappe - who was visibly irate on the pitch - telling journalists that he heard Prestianni direct the same racist remark at Vinicius several times.

Midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni also offered their own versions of the incident, reporting back to the press that their teammates had similarly heard the abuse.

“The players who were near said that (Prestianni) said something ugly, that shouldn’t be said,” Valverde said. “If you cover your mouth to say something it’s because you are saying something that is not nice. I’m proud of my teammates who defended Vini and of Vini.”

Prestianni unequivocally denied the allegations of racism and argued that his words must have been “misinterpreted”, saying: "I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults at the player Vinicius Jr, who unfortunately misinterpreted what he thought he heard. I have never been racist to anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players."

And Benfica have now come out to back their player and refute the testimonies supporting Vinicius’ claims on social media, doing so before an investigation into the incident has taken place.

Accompanied by a pitchside video showing the moment of the alleged abuse, Benfica wrote on X: “As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard.”

Benfica’s official English X account has not posted this, nor did they reshare Prestianni’s statement of denial, which Benfica’s Portuguese account opted to do.

Benfica have been hit with a torrent of backlash for their latest post, with many in the comments sharing different angles of the incident that show the “distance” between Vinicius and Prestianni - both standing either side of the halfway line - as far less significant than the club makes it out to be.

One user said: “This is so so poor from an official club account. First of all, the video absolutely does NOT show that at all. At an absolute minimum, Vinicius is definitely in earshot of Prestianni. But also an outright baseless denial not even attempting to acknowledge Vinicius Jr is so, so sad and absolutely disgraceful from you lot.”

Another supporter added: “Eusebio's face would fall off from shame if he saw what you've turned Benfica into.”

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Vinicius Jr alleges he received a racist remark on the pitch in the Champions League clash with Benfica (AFP via Getty Images)

It comes after Benfica manager Jose Mourinho came under fire for appearing to suggest Vinicius had provoked the abuse in his post-match interview and highlighting that in “every stadium that Vinicius plays, something happens”.

The Portuguese also said “the biggest person in the history of this club was black”, referring to Eusebio, before adding: “This club, the last thing it is is racist, so if in his mind it was something in relation to that, this is Benfica.”

Uefa have a three-step racism protocol in place giving referees the power to halt matches and referee Francois Letexier initiated step one at the Estadio da Luz.

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Referee Francois Letexier paused the match following Uefa’s three-step racism protocol (AFP via Getty Images)

The three step protocol is:

A match will only be abandoned once the security of the players and public has been assessed. The case is then referred to Uefa's disciplinary authorities. The incident between Vinicius and Prestianni will be investigated.