Vinicius won't be suspended for Valencia red card

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Tebas slammed for inaction over racial abuse of Vinicius Junior (1:28)

Alex Kirkland joins "The Gab & Juls Show" to criticise LaLiga president Javier Tebas' response to racist abuse of Vinicius Junior. (1:28)

  • ESPN

May 23, 2023, 06:16 PM ET

Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior will not be suspended after receiving a red card in Sunday's LaLiga match at Valencia, in which he was also racially abused, the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) said Tuesday.

"The RFEF Competition Committee considers that the referee's assessment was determined by the omission of the entirety of the play that took place, which affected the refereeing decision."

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"The fact that he [the referee] was deprived of a decisive part of the facts led him to adopt an arbitrary decision. And this is because it was impossible for him to properly assess what happened."

Vinicius is now free to play in Real Madrid's next LaLiga game at home to Rayo Vallecano on Wednesday, however sources have told ESPN that he is a fitness doubt for the match after missing training on Tuesday due to pain in his left knee.

Earlier, Video Assistant Referee Ignacio Iglesias Villanueva was dropped from Wednesday's LaLiga game between Real Betis and Getafe, the Spanish Football Association (RFEF) said in a statement on Tuesday, with sources telling ESPN the decision is punishment for his role in the sending off of Vinicius during Madrid's 1-0 defeat at Valencia.

The RFEF also announced that Valencia's south stand will be partially closed for five matches and the club fined €45,000 ($49,536) after the racist abuse suffered by Vinicius.

Seven people were detained by Spanish police earlier on Tuesday, accused of different hate crimes against Vinicius Jr, including racist slurs allegedly hurled at the Brazilian during Sunday's match at Valencia's Mestalla stadium. The game was halted for 10 minutes as the Brazil forward pointed out fans who were abusing him. He was then involved in an altercation with Valencia's players which led to him being sent off in the second half. "It is considered proven that there were racist shouts at Vinicius during the aforementioned match. A financial penalty of 45,000 euros is imposed on Valencia," the Competition Committee of the RFEF said in a statement.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

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