Brazil and Spain will play a friendly match in March next year as part of an anti-racism campaign in support of Brazilian winger Vinicius Jr. The game will be held at the Bernabeu, the home of Vinicius’ club side Real Madrid. The Brazilian Football Association (CBF) and Spanish Football Association president Luis Rubiales have launched the campaign under the slogan “One Skin”.
The campaign seeks to impose harsher punishments for cases of racism, such as deduction of points in league standings, closure of stands or lifetime expulsion of club members. CBF was the first football federation to adopt these sanctions. Ednaldo Rodrigues, CBF president, said “Fines are not enough. The clubs need to be held accountable too. We need to lead a campaign worldwide to fight against this virus that shames everyone in football.”
The latest incident of Vinicius being racially abused in Spain came when Real Madrid played Valencia in May. La Liga president Javier Tebas was widely condemned for his handling of the incident after he told Vinicius on social media that “you need to inform yourself properly”. Tebas later apologised to Vinicius, saying he did not mean to “attack” the 22-year-old. Rubiales said “It is intolerable that such events like what happened with Valencia take place in our country. I feel sorry because it doesn’t represent our country and who we are and tarnish our reputation worldwide. We have a problem with racism and have to fight.”
Brazil will play Guinea in Barcelona on Saturday and Senegal in Lisbon three days later.