Suspects were accused of starting a hate campaign against the Brazilian

Spanish police arrested four Atlético de Madrid fans for racist acts against Brazilian Vinícius Júnior. They were accused of starting a hate campaign against the Real Madrid striker on the eve of the Madrid derby, played on September 29th, in the Spanish Championship.

“They incited fans through social media to go to the stadium and hurl insults with racist connotations,” the police said in justifying the arrests. According to the police, the investigation began on the 1st of this month, after three complaints filed by LaLiga, the entity that organizes the Spanish Championship.

Police did not reveal the identities of those detained. But he reported that the four men are between 24 and 26 years old. Information about the arrest was only revealed this Thursday, but the arrests took place between the 14th and 15th of this month, according to authorities.

The complaints were based on the group’s posts on social media with the hashtag “#metropolitanoconmascarillas”, in reference to the name of the stadium, Metropolitano. In free translation, it means “metropolitan with masks”. Thus, fans could utter racist insults without being identified by the stadium’s camera system.

In recent months, fans of Real’s rivals have been identified and arrested precisely with the help of cameras in stadiums. According to the Spanish newspaper Marca, the hashtag had millions of views, based on 7,000 posts on X (formerly Twitter) and almost 56 thousand interactions.

The police did not rule out making new arrests in the investigation of the same case in the coming days. Just over a month ago, a court in the city of Palma de Mallorca sentenced a fan to one year in prison, in addition to three years away from the stadium, because of racist comments against Villarreal’s Vini Jr. and Samu Chukwueze.

The classic between Real and Atlético, played at the end of last month, was marked by a tense atmosphere in the stands and the interruption of the match in the second half after Atlético fans threw lighters onto the pitch, in the direction of Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. As punishment, Atlético had part of its stands closed for the game against Leganés and received a fine of 3 thousand euros, equivalent to R$ 18 thousand.