Spanish FA show leniency towards Valencia in Vinicius Jr racism ruling

Spanish football's governing body, RFEF, has decided to reduce the sentences handed out to Valencia following an incident of reported racist abuse at their Mestalla stadium aimed at Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior. 

During Valencia’s 1-0 win over Real Madrid in LaLiga, the match had to be stopped after racist chanting was heard from a section of the Los Che fans. 

In the aftermath of the incident, Valencia were fined €45,000 and ordered to close the Mario Kempes south stand of Mestalla for five matches, a ruling to which they appealed. 

After hearing Valencia’s appeal, RFEF decided to water down their initial sentence with a milder set of punishments for Los Che’s role in the incident. 

Instead of a €45,000 fine, Valencia will now be asked to pay only €27,000, and the five-match partial stadium closure has also been amended to only three matches. 

Thanks to the decision of RFEF to reduce Los Che’s sentence, the club could be tempted to make a second appeal to have the stadium ban scrapped as a whole in order to have a full Mestalla in their final match of the season, a crucial relegation decider against Espanyol. 

RFEF also opted to rescind Vinicius’ red card earned during the match against Valencia as a way of showing support to the Brazilian winger.