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Brazil’s Richarlison has urged for strong punishments to be issued to those found guilty of racial abuse, after having a banana thrown at him while on international duty.
The Tottenham forward scored the second of the game in Brazil’s 5-1 victory over Tunisia in Paris but a comfortable win, the last international game before Brazil’s World Cup campaign commences, was marred by the incident.
A banana was thrown as Richarlison celebrated his goal, his ninth in 20 appearances for the national side, which became the latest racist incident to impact Brazilian footballers.
Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr had suffered abuse from Atletico Madrid fans in his side’s recent derby triumph, following on from quotes from a Spanish agent who told him to ‘stop playing the monkey’ in reference to his dancing celebration.
Both players received a flood of support following the jarring incidents but Richarlison has warned that things will not improve unless the widespread condemnation is followed up with punishments.
“As long as they say “blah blah blah” and don’t punish, it will continue like this, happening every day and everywhere. No time bro!” he posted on Twitter.
Brazil’s squad had lined-up ahead of the match to display an anti-racism banner which read: “Without our black players, we wouldn’t have stars on our shirts”.
