Real Madrid President Florentino Perez demands changes to refereeing structure to combat racism

Real Madrid President Florentino Perez has spoken out against the racism suffered by star player Vinicius Junior, and demanded reform in the refereeing department at the same time.

Los Blancos have been active since Vinicius was abused again at Mestalla for a tenth time on Sunday night, emitting two statements, and beginning legal proceedings to investigate the case. Perez also met with Vinicius to express his support for the Brazilian.

Speaking as Real Madrid’s basketball side, which just won its 11th European title, celebrated their title, Perez told Marca that he wanted changes in the current system.

“I want to announce that Real Madrid will not tolerate any more racist incidents with our players. To do this, the refereeing structure must be changed so that the victim of the crime cannot be held responsible, as is happening now.”

“The society we live in does not deserve the incidents that have been repeated with our player. Sport is a meeting point, of values.”

The word Perez used was structura – structure – which would indicate reform in the organisation itself, and perhaps a leadership change. That would be a more political move. Manager Carlo Ancelotti instead felt that the way to tackle the matter was with sanctions and drastic measures, even changing the racism protocol. Making that protocol stricter could reduce warnings or lead to games being stopped immediately after racist incidents, whereas Perez’s statements imply that he feels the way to instigate action is be changing the people in charge of those rules.