UEFA ban? Benfica and Gianluca Prestianni make final call | OneFootball

On the afternoon of last Friday, April 24, the football world was caught by surprise by the decision taken by UEFA. According to the official statement, the governing body decided to punish Gianluca Prestianni with a six-match suspension for making homophobic insults at Vinicius Jr. However, it seems that Benfica and the player will not appeal this situation.

According to A Bola, in this Saturday’s edition, April 25, the 20-year-old footballer accepts the punishment imposed by UEFA, since he admitted in his testimony that he called the Brazilian international a “maricón,” translated into Portuguese as “maricas”, during the Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid.

As such, the Argentine footballer was punished by the body that governs European football for the homophobic remarks he directed at the Real Madrid forward, a version that Prestianni had made public in recent weeks. Therefore, it was never proven that the young Benfica player had called him a “monkey,” according to the version put forward by the Brazilian, which forced the interruption of the match in question.

“What hurt me was being accused of being racist, something I never was and never will be. (...) For us Argentinians, it is a normal insult to call someone cagón [coward] or maricón [f*g]”, said Gianluca Prestianni at the beginning of the month, in an exclusive interview with Telefe, Argentine television.

Thus, the Benfica winger, who has always declared himself innocent of the accusations made by the Brazilian, was punished with a six-match ban, three of which are suspended over the next two years. Now, Prestianni will only have to serve a two-match suspension, since he has already ‘served’ one by missing the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.