{"id":230016,"date":"2026-02-23T20:17:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/disgrace-to-football-star-cops-suspension-faces-10-game-ban-for-alleged-racal-abuse\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T20:17:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T20:17:00","slug":"disgrace-to-football-star-cops-suspension-faces-10-game-ban-for-alleged-racal-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/disgrace-to-football-star-cops-suspension-faces-10-game-ban-for-alleged-racal-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Disgrace to football\u2019: Star cops suspension, faces 10-game ban for alleged racal abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

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UEFA on Monday suspended midfielder Gianluca Prestianni from Benfica\u2019s Champions League play-off second leg against Real Madrid after he was accused of racially abusing Vinicius Junior.<\/p>\n

UEFA\u2019s disciplinary body, who are still investigating the alleged incident from last week\u2019s first leg, said in a statement they had \u201cdecided to provisionally suspend Mr. Gianluca Prestianni for the next UEFA club competition match for which he would otherwise be eligible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prestianni will therefore be unable to feature for Benfica on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu as the Portuguese side bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit and reach the last 16.<\/p>\n

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Get all the latest football news, highlights and analysis delivered straight to your inbox with Fox Sports Sportmail. Sign up now ><\/a><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Brazil international Vinicius scored the goal that splits the teams and reported the alleged racist abuse to the referee in the aftermath of his celebration<\/a>, with the game stopped for around 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

UEFA said Prestianni\u2019s provisional one-match suspension is \u201cwithout prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n

If UEFA find Prestianni, 20, racially abused Vinicius he will be banned for a minimum of 10 matches.<\/p>\n

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Benfica’s Argentine forward Gianluca Prestianni. Photo by FILIPE AMORIM \/ AFP<\/span>Source: AFP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prestianni, who argued with Vinicius while covering his mouth with his shirt, insists he did not racially abuse the Real Madrid forward.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid defender Trent Alexander-Arnold said the incident was a \u201cdisgrace to football\u201d, while striker Kylian Mbappe said Prestianni \u201cdoesn\u2019t deserve to play in the Champions League any more\u201d.<\/p>\n

Benfica coach Jose Mourinho, who is also suspended for the second leg, controversially criticised Vinicius for his effusive goal celebration and said his club could not be racist because their greatest icon, Eusebio, was black.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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UEFA on Monday suspended midfielder Gianluca Prestianni from Benfica\u2019s Champions League play-off second leg against Real Madrid after he was accused of racially abusing Vinicius Junior. UEFA\u2019s disciplinary body, who are still investigating the alleged incident from last week\u2019s first leg, said in a statement they had \u201cdecided to provisionally suspend Mr. Gianluca Prestianni for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":230017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[156],"class_list":{"0":"post-230016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups","8":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}