Arbeloa and Courtois urge Uefa to act after Vinícius incident

Álvaro Arbeloa and Thibaut Courtois have called on Uefa to take a genuine stand against racism after the alleged abuse of Vinícius Júnior by Gianluca Prestianni during Real Madrid’s Champions League playoff first leg at Benfica last week. Arbeloa said the governing body must go beyond “just slogans” as the two teams prepare to meet again.

The game at the Estádio da Luz was delayed for 10 minutes after Vinícius informed referee François Letexier that Prestianni had racially abused him, and Kylian Mbappé later accused Prestianni of calling Vinícius a “monkey” five times. Prestianni travelled to Madrid after Benfica appealed the provisional one-match ban and trained at the Santiago Bernabéu; Mourinho led the session but, serving a touchline ban, did not speak at the press conference and the club said it would not answer questions on the case.

Courtois urged football to “end these things”, saying the dressing room is 100% behind Vinícius and that it is ultimately for Uefa to decide.

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