Gianluca Prestianni banned by UEFA over alleged racist abuse of Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr | OneFootball

UEFA have banned Gianluca Prestianni for Benfica’s Champions League match against Real Madrid on Wednesday following alleged racial abuse of Vinicius Junior.

Vinicius accused Prestianni of racism during last week’s Champions League play-off first leg between Real Madrid and Benfica in Lisbon.

The Brazilian international was booked for celebrating the only goal of the game, which led to arguments between the two sets of players.

It was during this confrontation that the alleged incident occurred. When Vinicius notified the referee, play was halted for 10 minutes, in line with UEFA protocol.

Following the 1-0 Los Blancos win at the Estadio da Luz, the Spanish giants host Benfica on Wednesday, and it has been confirmed that Prestianni is suspended.

Prestianni’s ban currently applies only to Wednesday’s match as UEFA continue to investigate the matter.

A UEFA statement read: “Following the appointment of a UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector (EDI) to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour during the UEFA Champions League 2025/2026 Knock-out Play-off match between SL Benfica and Real Madrid CF on 17 February 2026,

“Upon request of the EDI with an interim report, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) today decided to provisionally suspend Mr Gianluca Prestianni for the next (1) UEFA club competition match for which he would otherwise be eligible for the prima facie violation of Article 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations (DR) related to discriminatory behaviour.

“This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies.

“Further information about this matter will be made available in due course.”

Vinicius has been the victim of racist abuse several times in his career and responded with this message on Instagram: “Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are.

“But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team’s life.

“I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why. On the other hand, it was just a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.”

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Prestianni denied racially abusing the Madrid star.

“I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard,” Prestianni said on social media.

“I was never racist with anyone, and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.”