Barcelona right-back Dani Alves has spoken out about racism in Spanish football grounds saying it is “uncontrollable”.
Alves was talking to the Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo ahead of Brazil’s friendly against France in Paris today. These are some of his comments:
“At first I was quite shocked, but now I don’t give it any importance. I have learned to live with it in all the matches but I don’t feel offended. They insult me, they call me monkey. The fans do it, the players are against it … My family are unhappy, they complain but I try to distance myself from it. I consider those people uneducated and don’t give them importance. The clubs and the league try to do some things to stop it. They try to punish the clubs, but it is uncontrollable. It will not go away.”
Alves is the latest in a long line of players to highlight racism in Spain with former Barca forward Samuel Eto’o also having spoken out about the racist chanting he received while playing in Spain.
With CTV technology as advanced as it is today, why cannot La Liga teams identify who is making the monkey chants and sounds in the ground and ban them for life?
Alves has been locked in a contract dispute with Barca for months now, and I wonder if the racist chants will cause Alves to move to another country to play next season?