Pep Guardiola is ‘not confident’ that Spain’s racism situation will improve. Guardiola believes La Liga should learn from the strict Premier League. The abuse of Vincius Jnior has focused a light on racism in Spain. Pep Guardiola is not optimistic about the racism problem in Spain improving after Vinicius Junior was abused during Real Madrid’s match against Valencia.
Pep Guardiola isn’t sure that Spain’s racism issue will get better
Vinicius threatened to leave the field after hearing monkey chants. Valencia was issued a five-match stadium ban, fined €45,000 (£39,000), and three people were arrested in connection with the event. Another four people were seized in connection with a puppet of the forward hanging from a bridge in a Spanish city earlier this year.
Guardiola asked whether La Liga should learn from the Premier League, said: “They should. Here they are so strict [on fighting racism]. They know what they have to do. This is a problem everywhere – thinking we are better than our neighbours, we are better than the other one.
“The problem is that there is racism everywhere, not just for gender but for colour. Believing that our language is better than the other one, our country is better than the other one. We need to accept diversity like human beings, but we are far away from that right now. Hopefully, we can improve in Spain, but I’m not optimistic.
“There are a lot of black people stepping forward to defend what they should not [have to] defend.”
City visits Brentford in their final Premier League match before the FA Cup final against Manchester United and the Champions League final against Internazionale a week later in Istanbul. Guardiola has given his players two days off starting next week.
