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MADRID, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Real Madrid’s Brazilian winger Vinicius Jr. says that unless Spain can move towards eradicating racism from its football grounds, it should not be allowed to host the 2030 World Cup finals alongside Portugal and Morocco.
The winger, who has been the victim of well-documented racist incidents involving sections of fans at Valencia, Mallorca and Atletico Madrid, made his declarations in an interview with TV network, CNN.
“I hope that Spain can evolve and understand how serious it is to insult someone because of the color of their skin,” said Vinicius.
“Until 2030 we have a very large margin of evolution (…) because if in 2030 things do not evolve, I think that the World Cup should be moved, because if the player does not feel comfortable and does not feel safe playing in a country where he can suffer racism, it’s a bit complicated,” he added.
The player, who was linked with interest from Saudi Arabia over the summer, insisted he wanted “to do everything possible to change things, because there are many people in Spain, the majority, who are not racist.”
“A small group is, which ends up affecting the image of a country in which it is very good to live.”
“I love Spain, having the best conditions to live here with my family. We hope that things can evolve more, they have already evolved so far, but they can evolve much more and by 2030, cases of racists and racism can and should decrease,” he insisted.
Vinicius’ words come a day after prosecutors in Madrid opened a case against an Atletico Madrid supporter for making monkey chants at Athletic Club Bilbao’s Spain international forward, Nico Williams, in a game at Atletico’s Metropolitano Stadium on April 27th. ■
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