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A hate crime investigation was opened after the
effigy wearing winger Vinicius Jr's No. 20 shirt was hung from a
bridge in front of the training ground of Real Madrid, the
player's team, along with a 16-metre red and white banner, the
colours of rival team Atletico Madrid, that read "Madrid hates
Real".
The arrests come a day after football federation chief Luis
Rubiales said Spanish soccer has a racism problem, following a
race-crime complaint lodged by Real Madrid.
After slurs were aimed at the Real Madrid player during a
Spanish league match on Sunday, Vinicius Jr, in a social media
post, called the racist abuse "inhuman" and asked sponsors and
broadcasters to hold LaLiga accountable.
The four men could be responsible for an alleged hate crime and
three of them are active members of "a radical group of fans of
a Madrid club", police said. Those three members were previously
identified during matches and qualified as "high risk" to help
prevent violence in sport, they said.
LaLiga, the country's top football league, is under pressure to
do more to combat racism after the Brazilian president, FIFA,
and sporting stars such as France forward Kylian Mbappe, Rio
Ferdinand and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton voiced support
for Vinicius.
However, the organization said in a statement on Tuesday that
"according to Spanish law, LaLiga can only detect and denounce,
but not sanction the events that occur", and urged Spanish
authorities to give it "sanctioning powers to be able to fight
racism more effectively."
"LaLiga feels tremendous frustration at the lack of sanctions
and convictions by sports disciplinary bodies, public
administrations and jurisdictional bodies to which complaints
are made," reads LaLiga's statement, who says it will file a
formal request to the sports law to be modified.
The sanctions in Spanish soccer are handled by the Competition
Committee of the Spanish FA (RFEF).
The effigy incident took place before Real hosted Atletico
Madrid in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals in late January.
(Reporting by Inti Landauro, Emma Pinedo and Fernando Kallás;
Editing by Alex Richardson and Bernadette Baum)
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