Tuesday, February 24 2026 - UEFA has provisionally suspended Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni for Wednesday's Champions League match against Real Madrid following allegations that he used r@cist language directed at Vinícius Júnior in last week's first leg.
Vinícius accused Prestianni of directing a r@cist !nsult at
him after Vinícius scored a goal in Madrid's 1-0 win over Benfica.
Prestianni was among the Benfica players upset with Vinícius
after the forward celebrated by the Benfica corner flag. Real Madrid teammate
Kylian Mbappé also said he heard the @buse. Prestianni had admitted to UEFA
that he used an "ant!-g@y" sl#r rather than a r@cist one, sources
told ESPN.
He will now sit out of the second leg between the sides,
pending a UEFA investigation, where he could he banned for up to 10 games if he
is found guilty of r@cial @buse in UEFA's disciplinary code.
A UEFA statement read: "Following the appointment of a
UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector (EDI) to investigate allegations of
discriminatory behaviour during the UEFA Champions League 2025/2026 Knock-out
Playoff match between SL Benfica and Real Madrid CF on 17 February 2026, and
upon request of the EDI with an interim report, the UEFA Control, Ethics and
Disciplinary Body (CEDB) today decided to provisionally suspend Mr. Gianluca
Prestianni for the next (1) UEFA club competition match for which he would
otherwise be eligible for the prima facie violation of Article 14 of the UEFA
Disciplinary Regulations (DR) related to a discriminatory behaviour.
"This is without pr3judice to any ruling that the UEFA
disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the
ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary
bodies. Further information about this matter will be made available in due
course."
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