Benfica’s Prestianni provisionally suspended by Uefa after Vinícius incident

Uefa has provisionally suspended Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Real Madrid after the incident with Vinícius Júnior in last week’s first leg.

Vinícius alleged that Prestianni racially abused him during Madrid’s Champions League playoff win in Lisbon, prompting Uefa to appoint an ethics and disciplinary inspector to investigate. Prestianni will miss this week’s return and Uefa said further punishment could be handed out once its investigation is completed.

If Uefa finds the Argentinian guilty of racism he could face a 10-match ban. Uefa said the provisional ban was “without prejudice 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”.

Benfica said last week they would collaborate with the investigation but outlined their support for Prestianni, who they said was “victim” of a “smear campaign”. Prestianni has denied racist abuse.

The game was delayed for 10 minutes after Vinícius scored the only goal, with Madrid’s players initially prepared to walk off, after Prestianni said something to Vinícius while covering his mouth with his shirt. Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé has publicly accused Prestianni of calling Vinícius a monkey five times.

Vinícius did not speak after the game but posted a message on Instagram that said: “Racists are above all cowards [who] need to put their shirts over their mouth to demonstrate how weak they are.”

Prestianni wrote on Instagram: “I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults at Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard. I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players.”