Real Madrid were nowhere near San Sebastián. Vinícius Júnior was not on the pitch, and he was not in the opposition squad either. Real Sociedad were playing Deportivo de la Coruña in a La Liga matchday 8 game, and the Brazilian forward’s name had no business coming up.
Toward the end of the first half, a section of the Fondo Sur Bajo stand, the home ground’s hardcore-supporter area known as the Aitor Zabaleta zone, sang in coordinated fashion for roughly eight seconds: “¡Es un imbécil, Vinícius es un imbécil!”
La Liga included that chant in its weekly complaint, filed on Thursday to the Royal Spanish Football Federation’s Disciplinary Committee and its Anti-Violence Commission, as reported by Spanish wire agency EFE. The route is the LALIGAVS platform the league uses to log stadium incidents week by week.
Three incidents in one filing
The Vinícius chant was not the only item in the document. La Liga also logged three separate chants against Spain, the Spanish national team and Spanish people more generally from the Alavés stand during their home fixture with Atlético Madrid.
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A third incident was recorded at La Rosaleda, where Málaga supporters twice sang a chant wishing harm on Espanyol forward Bryan Zaragoza, who had opened the scoring in a 1-1 draw.
Not filed as racism
The paperwork routes all three chants through the anti-violence track, not the anti-racism one. “Imbécil” is insulting but it is not a racial slur, and La Liga’s letter went to the Disciplinary Committee and the Anti-Violence Commission rather than to Spain’s state body for racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport.
That distinction carries weight. The matchday 8 chant, by its wording and by the route La Liga has chosen, is being treated as an anti-violence matter rather than a hate-crime one.
A name sung in a ground he was not in
The Brazilian has become polarising enough in Spain that his name is sung at in grounds where Real Madrid are not even playing. The Alavés chants against the national side were directed from the home end of a derby that had nothing to do with him either.
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The RFEF’s Disciplinary Committee is now the next step. Any sanctions, from fines to partial stadium closures, would be issued by that body once it has reviewed La Liga’s weekly report on the three incidents.
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