Fan detained after racially insulting Kylian Mbappe during Spanish league game

There have been a series of racist insults from fans against Black players in Spain in recent years. Last week, an Espanyol fan accused of racially insulting Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams during a Spanish league match five years ago accepted a deal to avoid prison time.

In May, five Valladolid fans who racially insulted Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior in 2022 were found guilty in the first ruling in Spain that condemned racist insults in a soccer stadium as a hate crime.

Last year, three Valencia fans were handed eight-month prison sentences after pleading guilty to racially insulting Vinícius in what was the first conviction for racism-related cases — not based on a hate crime — in professional soccer in Spain.

A Madrid court had in June this year handed suspended jail sentences to four people in a hate crime related to an effigy of Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior. The preparators were involved in hanging a banner reading “Madrid hates Real” and an inflatable black effigy in a replica of the Brazilian’s No. 20 shirt on a bridge before a Copa del Rey match against Atletico Madrid in January 2023.

One defendant was sentenced to 15 months in prison for a hate crime and an additional seven months for making threats, having distributed images of the act online. The other three were sentenced to seven months in prison for hate crimes and seven months for threats. They will not serve prison time, however, after all four signed a letter of apology to Vinicius, Real Madrid, LaLiga and the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF).

“The defendant who posted the video online received a special disqualification from working in education, sports, or recreational youth settings for four years and three months, while the others received three years and seven months,” the LaLiga statement said.