KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- Spain is bidding to host the Centenary World Cup, in partnership with Portugal and Morocco, in 2030. That ambition could be undermined by the complacency of the Spanish game after the latest racist abuse of Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior.

Madrid have lodged a hate crime complaint with Spanish prosecutors after the Brazilian star was targeted by opposing fans during Sunday’s match at Valencia’s Mestalla stadium. The match was halted for 10 minutes as Madrid players and coach Carlo Ancelotti complained to officials.

In a social media post Vinicius Jr, 22, called racist abuse “inhuman” and asked sponsors and broadcasters to hold LaLiga accountable.

He said: “What is missing to criminalize these people? And punish the clubs sportively? Why don’t the sponsors charge LaLiga? Don’t the televisions bother to broadcast this barbarity every weekend?”.

A club statement said: “Real Madrid C.F. shows its strongest rejection and condemns the events that occurred yesterday against our player Vinicius Jr.” It considered the abuse as “a hate crime” for which the club had filed a complaint with the state Attorney General’s Office.

The Movement Against Intolerance and the Association of Spanish Football Players said in a joint statement they had also filed a complaint with the same prosecutor’s office, citing racial slurs against the player.

The comments from Vinicius, Real Madrid’s second top scorer this season in all competitions (23), behind Karim Benzema (29), provoked an angry response from LaLiga president Javier Tebas. He said on Twitter that enough was being done and that Vinicius should inform himself “before you criticise and slander LaLiga”.

However federation president Jose Luis Rubiales struck a more concerned note.

He said: “The first thing is to recognise that we have a problem in our country. This is a serious problem that also stains an entire team, an entire fan base, an entire club, an entire country.”

The Brazilian government on Monday summoned the Spanish ambassador to explain the incident, and its foreign ministry said in a statement that after “yet another inadmissible episode” it had concluded that effective measures had not been taken by the Spanish authorities to prevent such acts of racism.

Worries abound in Madrid.

Real fear that Vinicius will try to force a transfer to the English Premier League while federation insiders believe the worldwide headlines will weigh negatively in the 2030 World Cup bidding campaign.

Spain, Portugal and Morocco are duelling with a four-way South American bid while speculation continues over a late run from Saudi Arabia which has just concluded an influential general memorandum of understanding with the African confederation.

The fact that the crisis is being closely followed by world federation FIFA came in a statement from president Gianni Infantino.

He said: “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.

“Firstly, you stop the match, you announce it. Secondly, the players leave the pitch and the speaker announces that if the attacks continue, the match will be suspended. The match restarts, and then, thirdly, if the attacks continue, the match will stop and the three points will go to the opponent.”

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