Proposal comes after Madrid’s Vinicius Junior was racially abused on the pitch by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni
Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois would welcome the idea of a ban on players from covering their mouths while speaking to opponents on the pitch, if it would be effective in the fight against racist abuse.
This comes after Madrid forward Vinicius Junior alleged that he had been racially insulted by Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni during the first leg of their Champions League playoff tie in Portugal.
Prestianni denied racially abusing the player, and instead said he had uttered a homophobic insult (equally punishable by a long ban), but Vinicius’ teammate Kylian Mbappe claimed he had also heard the Argentinian call Vinicius “mono”, Spanish for monkey, rather than the “maricon” Prestianni claimed. The latter is a Spanish insult for a homosexual man.
It is difficult to ascertain what Prestianni said since he had covered his mouth with his shirt before he uttered something towards Vinicius.
“If it would put an end to the insults, I’d welcome it,” Courtois said of the proposed ban. “If it would put an end to racism, I’d have no problem at all with the idea.
“With Prestianni, it’s complicated because it will always be one person’s word against another’s. We are 100 per cent with Vinicius, who has suffered a lot from this, but with the mouth covered, you can never know absolutely, and Benfica are bound to defend their player. It’s down to Uefa and the institutions to act.”
Prestianni missed the second leg of the playoff tie, having been provisionally suspended by Uefa’s disciplinary committee while an investigation continues. However, the investigation itself is complicated as it is Prestianni’s word against Vinicius’, and Mbappe is an unreliable witness as he is bound to side with his teammate.
