{"id":8662,"date":"2026-02-28T14:50:05","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T09:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/28\/benfica-suspend-five-fans-over-racist-incidents\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:50:05","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T09:20:05","slug":"benfica-suspend-five-fans-over-racist-incidents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/28\/benfica-suspend-five-fans-over-racist-incidents\/","title":{"rendered":"Benfica suspend five fans over racist incidents"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published22 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Benfica say they have suspended five supporters for behaviour &quot;of a racist nature&quot; during the first leg of their Champions League knockout play-off against Real Madrid this month.<\/p>\n<p>Play in Lisbon was suspended for 10 minutes after Real Madrid&#x27;s Vinicius Jr <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cpv843x1zgzo\">told the referee that he had been racially abused<\/a> by Benfica&#x27;s Argentine winger Gianluca Prestianni, who denies the claims.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Benfica informed that it has suspended the memberships of five members following the initiation of disciplinary proceedings that led to the application of the maximum sanction stipulated in club&#x27;s statutes, which is expulsion,&quot; the Portuguese club said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;An internal investigation initiated after the match between Benfica and Real Madrid, held on 17 February, and the adoption of inappropriate behaviour in the stands, of a racist nature, incompatible with the values and principles that govern the club.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Benfica reaffirms that it does not tolerate any form of discrimination or racism and will continue to act firmly when behaviours undermine the values of the club.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Vinicius had put the visitors ahead in the game but was booked for an excessive celebration in front of Benfica supporters.<\/p>\n<p>Television footage showed some fans appearing to make racist gestures aimed at the player.<\/p>\n<p>After an exchange with Prestianni he ran over to the referee, gesturing in the direction of the Argentina player before walking off the pitch, followed by his team-mates.<\/p>\n<p>When play resumed, an object was thrown from the crowd that struck Vinicius on the arm as he prepared to take a corner.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after the game, Benfica manager Jose Mourinho said Vinicius had acted disrespectfully and incited the crowd.<\/p>\n<p>Those comments were criticised by former Real midfielder Clarence Seedorf among others.<\/p>\n<p>Prestianni was handed a <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/clygxwzvy1eo\">provisional one-match ban<\/a> by Uefa and missed Wednesday&#x27;s return leg, which Real won 2-1 to <a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/cewzn4leyx1o\">go through 3-1 on aggregate<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Vinicius, who scored again at the Bernabeu, was booed by the away supporters.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Benfica issued a statement denying a claim that Prestianni had told the squad or club officials that he had uttered a racist insult to Vinicius.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/european\">European Football<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c4g82mr3l3vo\">\n<p>Vinicius: Eight years at Real Madrid, 20 cases of alleged racist abuse<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published18 February<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sounds\/series\/p02nrsln\">\n<p>Listen to the latest Football Daily podcast<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benfica suspend five fans over racist incidentsImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Benfica play at the Estadio da Luz in LisbonPublished22 minutes agoBenfica say they have suspended five supporte&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}