LaLiga will request greater jurisdiction to punish clubs whose fans are guilty of racist abuse after feeling “powerless” at the lack of current sanctions in the wake of the latest Vinicius Junior incident. The Spanish league is engulfed in a racism scandal after Real Madrid forward Vinicius was allegedly subjected to racist chants during Sunday’s game at Valencia and later claimed it was an example of “continuous episodes spread across several cities in Spain”. LaLiga, according to the country’s law, can currently only identify and report incidents, and punishment is rarely handed out. Now it wants legislation changing so that it has the power to impose punishment such as forcing games to be played behind closed doors or financial penalties. It said in a statement: “LaLiga will request more sanctioning powers, with the aim of being more agile and effective in the fight against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport, where LaLiga has been leading the identification and reporting of such behaviour in football stadiums for years, but feels powerless when observing how its reporting ends. “Despite its intense and continuous fight against violence and racism to the full extent of its powers (currently, according to Spanish legislation, limited to identifying and reporting the facts that occur), LaLiga feels tremendous frustration at the lack of sanctions and convictions by the sports disciplinary bodies, public administrations and jurisdictional bodies to which it reports. “Faced with this serious situation, in the coming days LaLiga will formally request the amendment of Law 19/2007 of July 11, against violence, racism, xenophobia and intolerance in sport and Law 39/2022 of December 30, on sport. “The purpose of the proposal is to request that LaLiga may exercise disciplinary authority over incidents of this type which occur in matches of the professional competition, so that the disciplinary bodies of LaLiga may proceed to sanction them, among other things, with the total or partial closure of the sports venue, the prohibition of access to it in the case of members/fans and the imposition of financial penalties, without prejudice to the adoption of provisional or precautionary measures that may be appropriate, depending on the nature and seriousness of the incidents. “As we have been repeating in recent days, LaLiga has been leading the fight against violence, racism and intolerance on football pitches, both inside and outside the stadium, identifying such behaviour through its match directors, security officers and television cameras, and subsequently reporting it to the relevant bodies.” It comes on the day four people have been arrested in Spain under suspicion of hanging an effigy of Vinicius off a bridge in January. An inflatable doll dressed in a Vinicius shirt was hung from the railings with a banner that read ‘Madrid hates Real Madrid’ ahead of Real’s Copa del Rey game with city rivals Atletico at the start of the year. And Spanish police confirmed on Tuesday that four suspects had been apprehended. They tweeted: “Arrested in #Madrid 4 people who allegedly hung a mannequin with the #Vinicius shirt on a bridge near the Ciudad Deportiva del @realmadrid.” The arrests follow the latest racism scandal that has engulfed Spanish football, with Vinicius targeted by racist chants during Sunday’s LaLiga game with Valencia. The Brazil international threatened to leave the pitch in the second half after being subjected to alleged monkey chants at the Mestalla. Real Madrid said the abuse constituted a “hate crime” and filed a complaint with the Spanish State Attorney General’s Office. Valencia confirmed police had identified a fan who made racist gestures at Vinicius and that individual faces a lifetime stadium ban. Vinicius tweeted on Monday night: “Every round away from home is an unpleasant surprise. And there were many this season. Death wishes, hanged doll, many criminal screams… All registered. “But the speech always falls on ‘isolated cases’, ‘a fan’. No, these are not isolated cases. They are continuous episodes spread across several cities in Spain (and even in a television programme). “The evidence is there in the video. Now I ask: how many of these racists had names and photos exposed on websites? I answer to make it easier: zero. None to tell a sad story or make those fake public apologies. “What is missing to criminalise these people? And punish clubs sportingly? Why don’t sponsors charge LaLiga? Don’t televisions bother to broadcast this barbarity every weekend? “The problem is very serious and communications no longer work. Not blaming me to justify criminal acts either. You are not football, you are inhuman.”

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Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp declared himself satisfied with the 4-0 victory over LASK which secured top spot in their Europa League group with a match to spare. Two goals from Cody Gakpo and one apiece from Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, his 199th for the club, saw them coast past the Austrians at Anfield. Toulouse’s draw with Union Saint-Gilloise meant Klopp’s side cannot be caught at the top and crucially that means avoiding the play-off round when the competition restarts in February. “Two top results for us tonight in the group,” said Klopp. “It was clear, with the defeat at Toulouse (last time out) we made it a bit more tricky but because of our result and their result we are now top of the table and that will not change. “That’s good, very important in the busy schedule we have from now on. “A lot of positives in the game, a lot of good football. The thing I didn’t like too much, and told the boys at half-time, (was) this game should have been put to bed already at half-time. “You cannot play better, you cannot set it up better, (but) you can finish it better obviously – but we didn’t. “Caoimhin (Kelleher) worked for his clean sheet, which he desperately wanted, and that’s good. “We scored a fourth goal in the last minute or whatever, so result top, performance really good (and) nobody got injured. All good.” Liverpool are favourites for the Europa League but having put themselves firmly in the title race the demands on Klopp’s side are likely to be significant when the competition resumes. However, the Reds boss refused to relegate Europe to a second-tier ambition. “Unfortunately, my career is not like this where I can choose, to be honest,” he added. “I have to take what I get. When we play the competition it’s the most important competition on the planet. Easy as that. “But now we play Premier League on Sunday (at home to Fulham) and so that is then the most important competition, definitely. “We want to go as far as somehow possible (in the Europa League).” Gakpo said the squad were determined to compete in all competitions they were in. “We have to keep going because we have big goals for the season. That’s it,” he told TNT Sports. “We just have to keep going and win as much as possible. We have a lot of quality in the group and I think with this quality we can win a lot of games.” Read More Unai Emery eager to top group after Aston Villa reach ECL knockout stages You’ve got to dream big: Lewis Dunk eyes Europa League glory with Brighton David Moyes urges West Ham to finish the job and top Group A Five bad weeks do not define a team – England’s Ben Duckett Daniel Levy ‘proud’ as report reveals Tottenham’s investment in local community Wales call on Chris Coleman in bid to boost Women’s Nations League hopes