Former Burnley boss Vincent Kompany delivers powerful response to Vinicius Jr incident

It’s claimed the Brazilian forward was the victim of racist abuse from Argentinian Gianluca Prestianni during Madrid’s Champions League encounter against Benfica on Tuesday night.

The game had to be halted for 10 minutes after Vinicius reported the allegation to the referee.

There’s since been a major fallout post-match, with Benfica boss Jose Mourinho defending his club and appearing to blame Vinicius for his supposedly provocative celebration after scoring.

Benfica released a statement disregarding the allegations, before later suggesting Prestianni is the subject of a 'defamation campaign'.

The incident brings obvious comparisons to the racist abuse Burnley’s Hannibal suffered at the hands of Preston North End striker Milutin Osmajic.

Discussing the incident during Bayern Munich’s press conference ahead of Saturday's game against Eintracht Frankfurt, Kompany delivered a passionate and at times emotional 12-minute riposte, detailing his own experiences of racism in the game.

He also made sure to respond to the question in English, to ensure he was able to deliver a detailed response as possible.

Here’s what he had to say:

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"I watched the game live. I was really intrigued by the game. There’s a couple of different components to this story. The first is what happens on the pitch, second is what happens with the fans, third is what happens after the game. For me, in those three things, there are some clear separations we need to make.

"On the pitch, you have Vini Jr. When you watch [his] reaction itself, it cannot be faked. You can see it. It’s an emotional reaction. I don’t see any benefit for him to go to the referee and put all this misery on his shoulders. There is absolutely no need for Vini Jr. to go and do this. He does it and when he does it, in his mind, he’s doing it more because it’s the right thing to do in that moment.

"Next to him you have Kylian Mbappé, who normally always stays quite diplomatic. Kylian Mbappé is really clear about what he heard and saw, and he’s even more clear after the game when he speaks about it.

"Then in the background in the stadium, there are people doing monkey signs. It’s happening in the stadium.

"Then for me, even worse, is what happens after the game. After the game, you have the leader of an organisation, José Mourinho, who basically attacks the character of Vinícius Jr, by bringing in the type of celebration to discredit what Vinícius is doing in this moment. For me, in terms of leadership, it’s a huge mistake. It’s something we should not accept. I’m very clear on that.

"The one thing you can’t do is dismiss a person and attack the character of a person who’s complaining about something he experienced, and something that must be very painful to that person. There’s something that needs to happen.

"I’m thinking about the situation we’ve gone through. It’s happened to Samuel Eto’o. It’s happened to Mario Balotelli so many times. So it was their celebration as well? What if it happens to Patrick Vieira?

"It happened to me. Twenty years ago I was in Seville. We’re going to say it was 20 years ago, okay… It was against Real Betis with [former Anderlecht teammate] Cheick Tioté. An unbelievable person. A heart of gold.

"Both of us were 18 or 19. We went to this game and we had the Real Betis fans on the fences singing Ku Klux Klan [chants], doing monkey chants, going on the fences like monkeys. We played a game. I was happy to score a goal in that game as well, because of this. And it happened back then. Was it my celebration as well? What did I do?

"But then you fast-forward and I’m a coach now – not so long ago. I go to Club Brugge. And I played for the national team; I was the captain for the national team. Me, my staff, we get called brown monkeys and so on. And after I complain, I see how all of these politics happen again to kill the story. So, no consequences, no nothing. And I have a voice. What do you think for the people without a voice?

"The problem is not necessarily the incident. The problem is how after that, everything gets put in motion. I understand the person he [Mourinho] is. I understand he’s fighting for his team, fighting for his club. And he’s made that decision. You cannot be a bad person and have all the ex-players you’ve had talk so positively about you. So, I know he’s a good person. I don’t need to judge him as a person. I know what I’ve heard. And I understand maybe what he’s done, but he’s made a mistake.

"It’s something that hopefully in the future won’t happen like this again, and that we can move forward [from] and grow. Look at the things we can do together rather than the things that always constantly separate us."

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