3 Valencia fans investigated over racial abuse to Vinicius Jr.

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A court in Valencia, Spain is investigating three football fans who yelled racial slurs at Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior during a match between Valencia and Real Madrid at the Metsala Stadium last Sunday. 

"The head of the Investigating Court No. 10 of Valencia has initiated preliminary proceedings to investigate the racist insults directed at Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior," the General Council of the Judiciary said in a statement on Friday, adding that "The court has opened the proceedings following the reception of a report of a possible hate crime prepared by Information Brigade of the Superior Police Headquarters of the Valencian Community."

A videoconference will be set up for Vinicius in order to hear his testimony on the events of that night and the courts are set to order Valencia CF to identify the names of the security guards present at the Metsala Stadium on the day of the incident which to the football world by storm.

The 22-year-old Brazilian international has often been targeted by rival fans in Spain's La Liga and was once more in a 1-0 loss at Valencia on Sunday.

The game was held up for several minutes and the referee wrote in his post-match report that shouts of "monkey" had been directed against Vinicius.

After the final whistle, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said, "I don't want to talk about football, I want to talk about what happened here, it is more important."

"A stadium shouting monkey at a player, and that a coach has to think about taking off the player, there's something bad in this league," Ancelotti told Movistar.

He said Spanish football needed to be prepared to halt matches, making clear that "the Spanish league has a problem, and Vinicius is not the problem. Vinicius is the victim. There's a very serious problem."

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday condemned the racist abuse of Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior after his fellow Brazilian was targeted during a Spanish league match at Valencia.

Speaking at a news conference at the close of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, Lula said he wanted to send a message of "solidarity" to the 22-year-old forward.

"He was attacked. He was called a 'monkey,'" Lula said.

He considered that "it's not possible, in the middle of the 21st century, to have such strong racial prejudice in so many football stadiums."

"It's unjust that a poor kid who's done so well in life, who may be on his way to becoming the best in the world -- he's certainly the best at Real Madrid -- gets insulted at every stadium where he plays," the Brazilian President stressed.

Lula called for FIFA and the Spanish league to take "serious measures".

"We can't allow fascism and racism to take hold in football stadiums," he indicated.

The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) launched its own investigation into the events as it revealed that it had filed nine complaints to Spanish authorities that target racist abuse faced by the Real Madrid forward over the past couple of seasons.

Furthermore, on Thursday Madrid court charged 4 men with hate crimes after police arrested them on Tuesday after they were "suspected of a hate crime for hanging from a bridge a mannequin with Vinicius' shirt," police said in a statement.

Three of the men are members of an ultra fan group of a Madrid football club, the statement added, without identifying the club.

The dummy wearing Vinicius Junior's jersey was hung by the neck from a highway bridge near Real Madrid's training ground on January 26 ahead of the club's match against Atletico Madrid.

A banner in the red and white colors of Atletico was also flung over the bridge that read: "Madrid hates Real."

Read more: Brazilians protest racist abuse of Vinicius Jr.