Jamie Carragher has advised Benfica to apologise over the alleged racist abuse towards Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr, drawing on Liverpool’s mistakes during the Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra incident
Jamie Carragher has given some advice to Benfica(Image: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has drawn upon his experience of being inside the storm of a racism row whilst offering advice to Benfica after Real Madrid star Vinicius Jr. informed the referee of alleged racist abuse during their Champions League encounter.
Vinicius scored the game’s only goal in a 1-0 triumph for the Spanish side, subsequently receiving a yellow card for excessive celebrations. Moments before the restart, Vinicius approached referee Francois Letexier to report that he had suffered racial abuse from Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni.
The Madrid forward later released a statement regarding the alleged racist abuse, whilst Prestianni issued his own response denying that he directed any racist language at Vinicius.
Benfica’s official X account shared footage filmed from the touchline showing the moment when Prestianni covered his mouth with his shirt before allegedly saying something towards Vinicius. Benfica used the footage to argue that none of the Madrid players could have heard what was uttered, despite Eduardo Camavinga and Kylian Mbappe being in proximity.
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“As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard,” the post from Benfica read.
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Carragher has now shared his thoughts on the incident, drawing on his own experience from his time at Liverpool during the racism incident involving Luis Suarez and former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra.
Suarez received an eight-match suspension after being found guilty of racially abusing Evra during a 1-1 draw between Liverpool and Manchester United in 2011.
Liverpool subsequently stood by Suarez and wore t-shirts in support of the striker at their following fixture. It wasn’t until 2020 that the Reds issued an apology to Evra.
Carragher delivered that apology, and now the former Liverpool defender has drawn on his own experience to offer some guidance to Benfica.
“Most people in football now are looking at the situation, and looking at Benfica, and thinking that they’ve got this horribly wrong,” Carragher said on CBS Sports, speaking alongside Thierry Henry, Micah Richards and host Kate Scott.
“Sometimes when you’re inside a football club, your judgment’s clouded [and] you back your player no matter what the situation, and even with something as so serious as racism.
Vinicius Junior reported alleged racist abuse during Benfica vs Real Madrid(Image: Eric Verhoeven/Soccrates/Getty Images)
“I’ve been there as a player inside a football club, we had a situation like this where I think the whole of football was looking at us, and thinking that we got it totally wrong at Liverpool. An incident between Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra 10-15 years ago.
“It took a long time for us inside the club to accept that we got this badly wrong.
“Thierry [Henry] mentioned there will be an investigation, there was an investigation then at that time, and it came out what Luis [Suarez] had said.
“I was on a TV show with Patrice Evra a good few years later and apologised that we, as a football club, had got this totally wrong, and the club followed suit as well.
“If there is an investigation, and hopefully there is, we can get to the bottom of it.
“I think that most of us feel that what happened was really unjust to Vini Jr. And, if there is an investigation, I just hope in time that Benfica and the people around that club can apologise if the accusation is right, but also realise some of the things they got involved in themselves – putting a tweet out hours after, trying to question the validity of Vini Jr and the Real Madrid players – has been poor. And hopefully, if it comes out the way we think is what happened, they [Benfica] apologise.”
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