Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni has been provisionally suspended by UEFA after being accused of racially abusing Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior.
The suspension means Prestianni, 20, will miss Benfica’s Champions League play-off match against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Vinicius alleged Prestianni racially abused him shortly after scoring the only goal of the game in the first-leg European tie last week.
Prestianni, who had his mouth covered by his shirt at the time of the alleged incident, denied directing racist abuse towards Vinicius.
‘I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard,’ he said after the game.
‘I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.’
Prestianni, who was also backed by Benfica and manager Jose Mourinho, has been suspended by UEFA while they continue their investigation into the incident.
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‘This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies,’ UEFA said.
If found guilty Prestianni could face a minimum 10-game ban from UEFA.
Following the incident, Vinicius said: ‘Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are.
‘But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team’s life.
‘I received a yellow card for celebrating a goal. I still don’t understand why. On the other hand, it was just a poorly executed protocol that served no purpose.’
Benfica boss Mourinho attracted criticism for his comments after Vinicius’ racism complaint after he accused the Real Madrid star of ‘inciting the crowd’ and pointed to the club’s legendary striker Eusebio as proof that Benfica is not a racist club.
Asked if he felt Vinicius incited the crowd with his goal celebration, Mourinho said: ‘Yes. I believe so. It should be the crazy moment of the game, an amazing goal.
‘Unfortunately [he was] not just happy to score that astonishing goal. When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way.
‘I told [Vinicius], when you score a goal like that you just celebrate and walk back. When he was arguing about racism, I told him the biggest person in the history of this club [Eusebio] was black.
‘This club, the last thing that it is, is racist. If in his mind there was something in relation to that, this is Benfica.
‘They [Vinicius and Prestianni] told me different things. But I don’t believe in one or another. I want to be an independent.’
Bayern Munich manager Vincent Kompany was among those to criticise Mourinho’s response to the incident.
Mourinho refused to be drawn on the UEFA investigation of his comments after Benfica’s 3-0 win over AVS Futebol SAD on Sunday.
‘I don’t want to comment,’ Mourinho said, before a Benfica press officer added: ‘There is a UEFA investigation underway and the boss is not available to answer.’
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