“They protected the player” – Valencia star hits out at La Liga over racism response – Football España

Spanish football has unfortunately had many cases of alleged racist abuse happen over the years, and one such situation involved Valencia defender Mouctar Diakhaby.

Back in 2021, he claimed that Cadiz defender Juan Cala had racially abused him during a match at the Mestalla, although a La Liga report later stated that nothing of the sort took place. To this day, Diakhaby has maintained his stance, and when speaking to the media on Thursday (via MD), he re-addressed the matter.

“I’m going to be clear, in my case La Liga protected the player… And that’s it. I felt that when my case occurred, La Liga did not act as it should, simply, and that when it was other players, they do investigate and do more. The president of La Liga does not come out to say strange things that we have misunderstood and things like that.”

Two years later, Diakhaby snubbed La Liga’s anti-racism response after Vinicius Junior was abused against Valencia, and he also spoke on this.

“I couldn’t tell you if I would wear it or not today. I wouldn’t get behind a banner to be the guy who agrees with what they’re doing. Yes, that’s fine, but we have to do better. I felt undefended and I didn’t feel on that banner.”

On Vinicius, Diakhaby does not believe that his and the Real Madrid superstar’s cases should be compared.

“No. Every case is different. I’m no more than that more has been said about Vinicius than about me. They are cases of racism, in different times, in different places and you have to identify that it was very different. His was a fan and mine was a player. They are different cases, but there is no comparison. I was not bothered by the noise because they are important things. We are not going to hide what has happened. I believe in what I see and what I hear.”