Four men between 24 and 26 years old, followers of Atlético de Madrid, were arrested on October 14 and 15 for promoting and orchestrating the online campaign against Vinicius in the days before the last Madrid derby. Under the hashtag #metropolitanoconmascarillas, the red and white fans were encouraged to insult and harass the Real Madrid athlete in the match on September 29, especially with racist connotations, and also to go with their faces covered so as not to be able to be identified. The campaign had an impact of 1.7 billion views, 7,000 tweets and 56,000 interactions.
The tension and controversy that shook the last Madrid derby at the Civitas Metropolitano was preceded by this digital campaign, which may constitute a hate crime. In this way, the radicals heated up the atmosphere that later erupted in the field, where several ultras threw objects onto the field, which caused the match to even have to be stopped for a few minutes. The investigation into what happened in the stadium was joined by investigations in the digital field in the previous days, which has resulted in the arrest of these four ultras in their twenties, after the police identified them as the authors of the campaign.
The investigation began on October 1, after receiving three complaints from the Professional Soccer League regarding the existence of a possible crime of inciting hatred. Specifically, the entity presented a series of publications as the seed of the campaign that went viral in the days prior to the meeting. In the following days, the police traced the origin of those tweets and were able to identify four alleged perpetrators of the initiative. The agents warn that they may not be the last detainees in this operation. In a statement, the body highlights the enormous “social alarm” generated by the hashtag.
The hate campaign encouraged people to hide their faces in response to the arrest of several Valencia fans last year for insulting the Madrid striker. The identification of the faces of the fans who made those racist shouts at the player was possible thanks to the detailed analysis of the images captured inside the Mestalla, with which the promoters of the campaign sought to encourage those who came to the stadium to continue with the harassment. to Vinicius, but at the same time avoid the possible consequences. A month ago, a court in Palma sentenced a man to one year in prison and removal from the Mallorca stadium for making humiliating comments to Vinicius and the Villarreal player, Samu Chukwueze, in separate matches in 2023.
In May of last year, four young people related to the Atlético Front, the ultra group of the red and white team, were arrested for hanging an inflatable doll from a bridge near Valdebebas, where the Madrid sports city is located, with Vinicius’s shirt and the motto “Madrid hates Real”. That action was carried out in the days prior to the Copa del Rey match that was going to pit both teams against each other. Key to that investigation was a publication that the authors themselves had made on social media shortly before hanging the doll, in which she was seen leaning against a wall near a common meeting point for football radicals.
Vinicius has been carrying his fight against racism as his flag for some time, and he has not hesitated to stop matches to point out fans who made humiliating comments related to the color of his skin. The response of the ultras is to intensify the attacks in this sense. And the police response is to arrest them, not only for crimes committed in the countryside, but also for those that take place on social networks.
