PARIS: UEFA said on Wednesday it would &quot;investigate allegations of discriminatory behavior&quot; after Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior accused Benfica&#39;s Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him during a Champions League match in Lisbon.&nbsp;Tuesday&#39;s first leg of the knockout phase play-off tie was stopped for more than 10 minutes after Vinicius complained to French referee Francois Letexier about the alleged abuse following a confrontation between him and Prestianni.&nbsp;That came just moments after Brazil international Vinicius scored a sublime goal before picking up a yellow card after celebrating in front of the home crowd at the Estadio da Luz.&nbsp;After arguing with Prestianni, Vinicius ran over to the referee and told him that he had been called &quot;mono,&quot; the Spanish word for monkey, by the Argentine midfielder.&nbsp;The 20-year-old Prestianni, who covered his mouth with his shirt as he appeared to say something to Vinicius, denies racially abusing the Real Madrid star.&nbsp;Real&#39;s England full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold said the incident had left a sour taste in the mouth.&nbsp;&quot;It&#39;s disgusting. What&#39;s happened tonight is a disgrace for football. It&#39;s ruined the night for the team,&quot; he said.&nbsp;Real forward Kylian Mbappe called on Prestianni to be banned.&nbsp;&quot;We cannot accept there&#39;s a player playing in Europe&#39;s best competition and behaving like this,&quot; the France captain told reporters.&nbsp;&quot;This guy doesn&#39;t deserve to play in the Champions League again.&quot;&nbsp;Benfica coach Jose Mourinho hit out at Vinicius for inciting Benfica&#39;s players and fans with his celebration.&nbsp;&quot;When you score a goal like that, you celebrate in a respectful way,&quot; said the Portuguese.

Football

UEFA will investigate alleged racist abuse after Vinicius Junior accused Gianluca Prestianni of calling him 'mono' during a UEFA Champions League match. Kylian Mbappe urged a ban; Jose Mourinho criticized Vinicius’s celebration.

UEFA opens probe into 'discriminatory behavior' toward Vinicius

GENEVA: European soccer body Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is moving toward a vote to suspend its member federation Israel over the war in Gaza, people familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press on Thursday. &nbsp;A majority of UEFA&rsquo;s 20-member executive committee is expected to support any vote in favor of suspending Israeli teams from international play, two sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.&nbsp;The move comes two weeks before the Israel men&rsquo;s team is due to resume its 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign with away games against Norway and Italy.&nbsp;It is unclear whether world soccer body FIFA will support excluding Israel given the close relations between FIFA&rsquo;s leader, Gianni Infantino, and President Donald Trump.&nbsp;The Trump administration&rsquo;s support to secure the World Cup, and process visas for players, officials and potentially hundreds of thousands of visiting fans, is seen as key to FIFA delivering a successful tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico next year.&nbsp;FIFA&rsquo;s ruling council is scheduled to meet in Zurich next week. The 37-member council includes eight from UEFA.&nbsp;Calls to exclude Israel from soccer and other sports have increased in recent weeks amid an outcry over the humanitarian toll of its military campaign in Gaza.Last week Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S&aacute;nchez said Israel should be banned from international sports events just like Russia, which was sidelined after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.&nbsp;UEFA and its president Aleksander Ceferin signaled a tougher view on Israel last month when banners saying &ldquo;Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians&rdquo; were placed on the field in front of the Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham teams ahead of the Super Cup game in Udine, Italy.&nbsp;Israel&rsquo;s sports and culture minister, Miki Zohar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel&rsquo;s soccer federation, Moshe Zuares, have been working &ldquo;intensively behind the scenes&rdquo; to block efforts to oust Israel from UEFA, Zohar&#39;s office said Thursday.&nbsp;&ldquo;The right step now is to act responsibly with the professionals and not to make statements, and this is how all the parties involved in the efforts are acting. We will address this later.&rdquo;&nbsp;Critics of Israel&#39;s response since the October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas provoked the war have consistently pointed to Russia being suspended by FIFA and UEFA within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.&nbsp;Last week, Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza by an inquiry commission commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council.&nbsp;The Russia ban also was driven by a swath of UEFA member federations refusing to play scheduled games against Russian opponents, including Poland which had been due to go to Moscow for a 2022 World Cup qualifying playoff.&nbsp;FIFA and UEFA later argued when winning at a Russian appeal against the ban that they could not risk chaos in their own competitions, including the World Cup.&nbsp;The Norwegian soccer federation also pledged to give its profits from ticket sales for the October 11, game in Oslo to humanitarian work in Gaza by Doctors Without Borders.&nbsp;Both Italy&rsquo;s Gabriele Gravina and Lise Klaveness of Norway are elected members of the UEFA executive committee which could vote on suspending Israel. Zuares, the Israeli soccer federation president, is also on the panel.&nbsp;

UEFA is set to vote on suspending Israel from international soccer over the Gaza war, amid growing European calls. The move comes before Israel’s World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Italy scheduled next month.

Articles tagged with "UEFA"

UEFA opens probe into 'discriminatory behavior' toward Vinicius

European soccer body UEFA moves toward vote to suspend Israel