UEFA suspends Benfica winger for six matches over homophobic language
Kyiv • UNN
UEFA has suspended Gianluca Prestianni from Benfica for six matches over homophobic language against Vinícius Júnior in the Champions League. One match served, two to be missed, three conditional; referred to FIFA.
UEFA has suspended Benfica's winger, for whom Anatoliy Trubin and Georgiy Sudakov play, Gianluca Prestianni for six matches following accusations of using homophobic language towards Vinícius Júnior during the first leg against Real in the Champions League playoffs. This was reported by UNN citing the UEFA website.
UEFA's Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body has decided: to disqualify Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni for a total of six official UEFA club and/or national team matches in which he would have the right to participate, for discriminatory (i.e., homophobic) behavior
According to UEFA's decision, Prestianni's suspension will last six matches, one of which the winger has already served. He will miss two upcoming UEFA matches, while the suspension for three games has been made conditional. In addition, UEFA has appealed to FIFA to make the suspension global.
Addition
In February, during the Champions League 1/16 round match between Andriy Lunin's Madrid "Real" and Anatoliy Trubin's and Georgiy Sudakov's Lisbon "Benfica", Vinícius Júnior, the winger of the "Blancos", emotionally celebrated scoring a goal.
Already in the middle of the field, during the ball restart, Prestianni, covering himself with his jersey, said something to Vinícius. According to the Brazilian, Prestianni called Vinícius a monkey.
According to information from ESPN, Prestianni told UEFA in his testimony that he called the Brazilian striker "maricón" (f*ggot, in Spanish), not "mono" (monkey, in Spanish).