The fact that a sport of the masses like football has not been able to implement a protocol for racist insults on the pitch is indicative of all that needs to be tackled so that an authentic scourge of today's society can be uprooted. On Sunday, at the Ramón de Carranza Stadium in Cádiz, we witnessed how a racist insult by a local player - defender Juan Torres Ruiz, popularly known as Cala - directed at the Valencia team's French defender of Guinean nationality, Mouctar Diakhaby, whom he called "a black shit", not only had no further consequences, but as well, the visiting team walked off the pitch, then returned to the field (minus the player who had been abused) in order not to forfeit points and face penalties. The footballer who provoked the racist incident continued playing the match, unperturbed.
For a team to walk off the field in protest at racist insults marks a turning point in Spanish football, because the only response that can be given to racism is zero tolerance. For the Valencia footballers to then be required to return to the pitch, with the insulted player in tears in the stadium tunnel, is an act of complete stupidity that must force the top officials of the sport to find a solution, because failing to do so would mean granting absolute impunity to the aggressor, however you look at it.
What many call the best football league in the world - in sporting terms, this year it has clearly been overshadowed by England's Premier League and probably also by Italy's Serie A - must not simply accept the image that Spanish football is thus sending to the world. That of the match being played and the footballer who was insulted remaining in the dressing room after being substituted. Little gets said about the fact that at the head of the Spanish league there is a former member of Fuerza Nueva and far-right Vox voter, Javier Tebas. A character who has even spoken out about the need for a "Spanish Le Pen". It begins by trivializing these situations, then it moves to positioning Vox as just another Spanish political party and, from there, the racism gets downplayed and the incident attributed to a mere boil-over.
Moving from criticism to exemplary punishment is urgent. And if it affects a sport of the masses, like football, which acts as a mirror for many attitudes among our youth, it is also essential.