Vincent Kompany strongly criticized coach Jose Mourinho, saying, “The Benfica coach made a big mistake in his comments about Vinicius Jr.”
On Tuesday, the Real Madrid striker briefly refused to return to the pitch after receiving allegations of racial abuse from Gianluca Prestianni after scoring in a Champions League match in Lisbon.
UEFA has appointed an ethics and disciplinary investigator to look into the incident. Sky Sports News I was told the process could take up to 3 weeks to complete.
After the game, Mourinho said, “When you score a goal like that, you celebrate politely,” and said that it was Vinicius who incited the home fans with a celebration after the goal. He then added: “There is something wrong because it happens in every stadium. Something happens in every stadium where Vinicius plays. Always.”
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Benfica manager Jose Mourinho said he tried to ‘strike balance’ in response to claims of racism by Vinicius Junior during the Champions League match against Real Madrid.
Mourinho has been widely criticized for his comments in the aftermath, and on Friday Bayern Munich boss Kompany condemned the Portuguese’s comments.
“It’s a difficult topic. I saw it live and there are a few different components to the story. First, there’s what happens on the pitch. Second, there’s what happens to the fans. Third, there’s what happens after the game. There are some clear distinctions between these three that we need to make.
“So when you look at what’s happening on the field, Vinny Jr. can’t be fooled by the action itself. You can see that his reaction is an emotional reaction. I don’t think there’s any benefit for him to go to the referee and put all this misery on his shoulders. There’s absolutely no reason for Vinny Jr. to go and do this and he does it, and when he does it, he does it because he thinks it’s the right thing to do in that moment.
“Next to him is Kylian Mbappe, who always remains diplomatic, but he is very clear about what he heard and what he saw, and he is even clearer when he talks about it after the game.”
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Kylian Mbappe has shared his thoughts on the racist abuse suffered by Vinicius Junior, saying football is ‘worthless’ if incidents like this are allowed to happen.
“So all these things happen, but of course you have players who hide what they say under their shirts and then you have players who end up complaining and players who say they didn’t do it and it’s a difficult case unless the player comes forward.
“I understand this, but there were videos showing people making monkey signs on the pitch. And what’s worse for me is what happens after the game.
“Jose Mourinho, the leader of the organization, is attacking Vinicius Junior’s character by introducing a celebratory format to discredit what Vinicius is doing.
“In terms of leadership, this is a huge mistake and should not be accepted.”
In his comments, Mouirnho appeared to cite the legendary figure of Benfica’s Eusebio as proof that people associated with the club cannot be racist, with Komany also responding.
“Furthermore, he mentions the name Eusebio and says that Benfica cannot be racist because Eusebio is the best player in Benfica history.
“Do you know what black players went through in the 1960s? Were you there to travel with Eusebio to every away game and see what he went through all over Europe?
“My father was also black in the 1960s, so their only option back then would have been to keep quiet, to not say anything and to be ahead of him and be 10 times better and get some credit and have people say, ‘Actually, he’s great.’”
“Maybe that was Eusebio’s life. Let me use his name today to highlight that Vinnie Jr. has actually, finally, reached a place where he can speak up… There are a lot of players in different leagues in Europe who have no say. If something happens to players in Hungary, Bulgaria or Serbia, they are black players and there is absolutely no chance of them getting any kind of support.
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Real Madrid winger Vinicius Junior had been subjected to racist insults on several occasions before the incident at Benfica.
“Vinny Jr. is in a situation where at least a lot of players have made it possible for him to take this moment and protest.”
Kompany accused Mourinho of attacking Vinicius’ character.
Kompany also accused Mourinho of attacking Vinicius’ character and cited incidents in which Mourinho could have been subject to discrimination.
Kompany referred to Portugal’s infamous celebrations at Old Trafford during his time as Porto manager and his clash with referee Anthony Taylor in the 2023 Europa League final, where he was accused of using ‘insulting/expletive language towards the match referee’ and saw Taylor escorted home after being abused by fans.
“One thing you cannot do is fire someone and attack their character for complaining about something they have experienced and something that seems very painful to that person.
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Liverpool manager Arne Slott said football must do more to tackle racism following allegations of racist abuse aimed at Vinicius Junior during the Benfica-Real Madrid match.
“Jose Mourinho attacked Vinny Junior’s celebration during his knee slide at Old Trafford, so when he went to the fans at the semi-final between Inter Milan and Barcelona, he went and celebrated in front of the Barcelona fans.
“When he plays with AS Roma against Sevilla and fights with referees, they should leave the country under protection after the game. If at that moment someone had been racist to Mourinho, I would have wanted us all to say ‘enough’. It doesn’t matter if he congratulates Sevilla. Let’s listen to what he says and defend a few simple things, a few key things.”
“I’ve met 100 people who worked with Jose Mourinho. I’ve never heard anyone say anything bad about Jose. All his players who played with him love him. I understand what kind of person he is. I know he’s fighting for the team and the club and I know he made those decisions.
“You can’t be a bad person and have all your former players talk so positively about you. I know he’s a good person. I don’t have to judge him as a person, but I know what I heard and I understand what he did, but he may have made mistakes. I hope this doesn’t happen again in the future, and we can move forward and look at things we can grow and do together rather than what continues to divide us.”
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Journalist Darren Lewis has argued greater deterrence, including long-term bans, is needed to stamp out racism in football after Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior was accused of racism by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestiani.
‘If guilty, I hope there will be room for an apology to Prestiani.’
When asked what he would like to see happen after the incident, Kompany admitted that he hopes that if Pretiani is found guilty, he will be given a platform to apologize and that he will be punished.
“My dream is for the situation to end. If it’s true that the Benfica player said something as bad as what he said, I hope there’s still room for someone to apologize and say ‘I’m sorry I made a mistake’ and it also affects the sentence.”
“So the sentence has to be either A or B, and if you admit that you made a mistake, you should have the opportunity to say, ‘Hey, no one is perfect.’ This is also a good step, but we’re eliminating all these options because we’re creating left or right, black and white, and you have to be one or the other.”
