Benfica supervisor Jose Mourinho mentioned in his post-match interview that he had been advised various things by Vinicius and Prestianni concerning the incident.
Mourinho, who managed Actual for 178 video games between 2010 and 2013, mentioned Vinicius had been disrespectful in his objective celebration and pointed to their legendary striker Eusebio as proof that Benfica just isn’t a racist membership.
“The membership reaffirms, clearly and unequivocally, its historic and unwavering dedication to defending the values of equality, respect and inclusion, that are in keeping with the core values of its basis and have Eusebio as their best image,” Benfica mentioned.
Mourinho’s and Benfica’s feedback have been criticised by a lot of individuals, together with anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out.
Kick It Out chair Sanjay Bhandari mentioned each the membership and supervisor had “failed”.
“It is a pure inclination to need to imagine your participant, however the actuality is that they did not hear it,” Bhandari advised BBC Sport.
“There’s solely two people who find themselves in that dialog and two individuals who might have heard what was mentioned.
“I believe the higher response from a membership with Benfica’s unbelievable stature can be to say we will cooperate with the investigation.
“That is fairly typical after these sorts of discriminatory occasions. The discrimination is one factor, the gaslighting is one other.”
Fifa president Gianni Infantino mentioned he was “shocked and saddened” by the incident and recommended Letexier for activating the anti-racism protocol.
“There’s completely no room for racism in our sport and in society – we’d like all of the related stakeholders to take motion and maintain these accountable to account,” he added.
“I’ll at all times proceed to reiterate: No to racism, no to any type of discrimination!”
