The controversy over an alleged racist insult in the La Liga football match on Sunday between Cádiz and Valencia - and the lack of any immediate response from the match officials - continues to rage. Following a wave of messages of anti-racism solidarity with Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby, alleged target of the abuse, who left the match in protest, the questions now are: What was actually said? And what is the Spanish football league going to do about it?
"We have opened an internal investigation procedure. Now, with the videos and images of the match, we have to see and clarify what happened at that moment." This is what Javier Tebas, the president of the League, has said this Monday. The investigation will look into the minute 29 incident at the Ramón de Carranza stadium on Sunday, when Diakhaby left the pitch, accompanied by his teammates, after receiving racist insults from a Cádiz player, who according to the Valencian was Juan Cala. Later, the Valencia team - minus the alleged victim Diakhaby - returned to the pitch, having been warned they could forfeit points if they did not. Diakhaby was substituted at half time.
Twitter users share audio of the key moment
Cala, the Cádiz footballer at the centre of the affair, has already announced that on Tuesday he will hold a press conference to explain his own version of the events. Meanwhile, Twitter users have done their own digging, with an audio recording of the key moment appearing on Monday afternoon, sourced from a television match commentary. The English commentator says the words "A yellow card being shown to Diakhaby himself" and then pauses, and at that point a voice can be heard saying "Negro de mierda, vas a llorar" - Black shit, you're going to cry.
The incident has hit the Easter weekend headlines in the international sports press, and beyond. "Storm of Racism," headlines UK tabloid The Sun. "An unprecedented fact in the history of La Liga," says France's L'Equipe. "Outrageous, Valencia walks off the field! Racist insult to Diakhaby," reports Italian sports daily Corrierre dello Sport. "Valencia 'forced to play' match after alleged racial insult," said USA Today.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane reiterated the need for zero tolerance of racism in sport when asked about the affair, and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias also offered all his solidarity with Diakhaby in a tweet: "We mustn't accept racist insults and aggressions in sport, in the street or in the media", said the Spanish politician.
The same racist insult used in 2004 incident
The discordant note occurred this Monday evening on Spanish television network La Sexta. In the football chat show El Chiringuito de Jugones, guest journalist Juanma Rodríguez recalled the 2004 controversy when the then-Spanish national team manager, Luis Aragonés, used exactly the same offensive phrase - negro de mierda - to describe French striker Thierry Henry. In that incident, caught on video, Aragonés had told his player Reyes: "Say to that black shit, 'I'm better'." In this Monday's chat show, 17 years later, the Spanish journalist expresses his indignation that the British press could have regarded this as evidence of Aragonés's racism.
As Twitter user PabloMM comments: "According to this guest, if a footballer calls another "black shit" it does not mean that he is racist. How can such messages be tolerated in the media?"
In 2004, the Spanish football federation fined Aragonés 3,000 euros for the comment, which many media and anti-racism groups, as well as Thierry Henry himself, criticised as "a token gesture". Aragonés denied being racist for using the phrase, and merely gave an apology aimed at anyone who had taken offence.
Main image: Valencia FC player Diakhaby leaving the field in Cádiz after receiving alleged racist insults / EFE