Former Barcelona, Juventus and France defender Lilian Thuram has criticised the treatment of Vinicius Junior and Nico Williams in Spanish football following incidents of racial abuse. Thuram, who campaigns for racial equality, has noted that
Thuram was speaking at a UNESCO event held in partnership with Barcelona last week, as attended by President Joan Laporta, and highlighted that racism was a long way from being eradicated from Spanish football.
“Racism in football is a reflection of racism in society. The modern world has been built on the concept of the superiority of white people over other non-white people. If you look at it, the people who suffer racist insults in football stadiums, are black people. Why? Because there is racism,” he was quoted by TV3.
“Vinicius suffers from racism in Spain, but how many people are there who say it’s Vinicius’ fault? Can you imagine that? A young guy suffers from racism and we’re saying that his behaviour encourages racism… It’s unbelievable.”
The World Cup-winner referenced an incident from earlier this year where Athletic Club star Nico Williams suffered racial abuse at the Metropolitano against Atletico Madrid.
“When a black player denounces racism the first thing he is told is to calm down. He wants to leave the field, but his teammates and the other team tell him: ‘Calm down, don’t leave the field of play.’ He feels attacked and gets very nervous. And in the end the referee will show him a yellow card to calm down. It’s such a violent situation that the one who suffers it ends up not wanting to report it.”
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Thuram also called on journalists, directors, referees and family members to do more to help, but in particular pointed towards white footballers to use their voice more often.
“It’s a very sad fact: the silence of the white players. As a general rule, why don’t they do anything? There are some who speak up, but the vast majority, when the game is over, we don’t hear them talk about racism.”
Vinicius and the Williams brothers have become thee face of the battle against racism in Spanish football in recent years, with the Brazilian even directly challenging La Liga President Javier Tebas to do more. Thuram has been an activist for some time, and also suffered plenty of abuse during a tense time when Les Bleus won the World Cup in 1998.