Yesterday (May 21) was horrible for Real Madrid winger Vinicius Jr. at the Mestalla Stadium in Spain.

Subjected to foul racism with chants of “monkey” reverberating around the stadium aimed at him, red carded and his side losing 1-0 to Valencia, it was a day of infamy.

The black Brazilian has been racially abused 10 times in football stadiums since October 2021 and there are no signs that it will get better for him.

LaLiga is not inclined to stamp out racism with one official saying throwing a banana on a pitch is not a crime.

Despite the protestations and appeals, LaLiga doesn’t see racism as a big deal. It is getting to Vinicius Jr. with talk of him leaving the Spanish league and perhaps looking to the English Premier League where that sort of thing is not tolerated.

If that’s his mind set, he will be bitterly disappointed. There is no refuge from racism in Europe.

A generation ago, Jamaica-born John Barnes was subjected to the most vile racism with bananas thrown at him and monkey chants ringing in his ears. Only last month, Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku was racially abused in a stadium. He insists that he wants to continue playing for Inter where he is comfortable and is not keen on returning to Chelsea.

Black players in Turkey get a lot of racial abuse and the authorities there are not intent on holding supporters accountable-it’s just the way it is.

Taking to Instagram to comment on Sunday’s abuse, Vinicius Jr wrote: “The prize that racists won was my expulsion. This isn’t football, this is @LaLiga.

Doubling down he took to Twitter posting: “It was not the first time, nor the second time, nor the third. Racism is normal in LaLiga. The competition thinks it’s normal, the Federation does too and the opponents encourage it. I’m so sorry. The championship that once belonged to Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Cristiano and Lionel today belongs to racists.

“A beautiful nation, which welcomed me and which I love but which agreed to export the image of a racist country to the world. I’m sorry for the Spaniards who don’t agree, but today in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists.

“And unfortunately for everything that happens each week, I have no defence. I agree. But I am strong and I will fight to the end against racists. Even if that is far from here.”

His coach, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti, addressed the matter and called for action to be taken against racists at matches.

“I don’t want to talk about football today…when a whole stadium is chanting “monkey” at a player and the manager has to think about taking off a player because of it, there is something bad happening in this league.

“I’m very sad because LaLiga is a league with big teams, with a good atmosphere. This we have to get rid of. We are in 2023, racism does not have to exist …the only way for me is to stop the game, said the Real Madrid coach.

LaLiga will have to take some action but some view the racism in football as a wider societal malaise.

Brazil’s President Lula da Silva had this to say about racism at European football stadiums: “It is not possible that almost in the middle of the 21^st century, we have the racial prejudice gaining strength in several football stadiums in Europe… I think it is important that FIFA, the Spanish League and leagues in other countries take real action because we cannot allow fascism and racism to dominate football stadiums.”

Football legends Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, Antonio Rudiger and Rio Ferdinand have all come out supporting Vinicius Jr.

“Full solidarity to Vinicius. There is no place for racism in football or in society and FIFA stands by all players who have found themselves in such a situation,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino posted on his Instagram account.