Breaking: Prestianni admits to homophobic slur in UEFA statement, denies racist angle | OneFootball

Real Madrid are pushing for justice in the Vinicius Jr.-Gianluca Prestianni case as they see it as only just that the Benfica star is punished for racially abusing their player.

Several international organisations including the CBF, in fact, have come out to ask for a strict punishment of the guilty party, and UEFA promptly began an investigation after the game in Lisbon.

The big hurdle, however, was that the 20-year-old covered his mouth at the time of the said racial abuse, and there is no way to prove that he indeed said what Vinicius claims.

Prestianni’s statement

As part of the ongoing investigation conducted by UEFA on the said incident, Benfica youngster Prestianni was asked to provide his official statement and clarify his side of the story.

The player thus did so last night, and his official statement conveyed that Vinicius Jr. misheard his words of homophobic insult as those of racial abuse as relayed by ESPN.

“I called Vini Jr a fa*fot. I did not call him a m*nkey,” he said.

Prestianni presents a completely new story in his statement. (Photo by Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

He insisted that his words to the Brazilian star did not have an ounce of racial abuse in them and that it was strictly a homophobic slur. However, it remains to be seen how much that detail changes the course of the investigation.

After all, according to Article 14 of UEFA’s Disciplinary Regulations, the punishment framework for both racial and anti-gay abuse is the same. This implies that homophobic and racial hate are treated equally, and that Prestianni must face the music anyhow.

“Any entity or person subject to these regulations who insults the human dignity of a person or group of persons on whatever grounds, including skin colour, race, religion, ethnic origin, gender or sexual orientation, incurs a suspension lasting at least ten matches or a specified period of time, or any other appropriate sanction,” the regulations state.

According to the regulations, the Benfica player must thus incur a suspension of at least ten matches, virtually ending his participation in this season’s UEFA Champions League and possibly the entire group stage campaign next season.