Xavi surprised Vinicius red card was overturned

After suffering from blatant racist abuse during the Real Madrid vs Valencia clash on Sunday, Vinicius Junior was given a red card for taking part in a brawl on the field. That red card has since been rescinded.

The statement from Spain’s competition committee reads:

“This Committee considers it to be established that the referee’s assessment was determined by the omission of the entirety of the play that took place. Indeed, the fact that he was deprived of a decisive part of the facts led him to adopt an arbitrary decision. And this is because it was impossible for him to properly assess what happened, because in the procedure necessary for the adoption of such a decision there was the omission of an essential step for it to have been legitimately and legally adopted.”

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernández voiced his surprise at the overturning of the red card, saying that the incident on the field and the racist chants were two separate incidents.

“I don’t know if it’s fair. In my opinion, racist acts should be condemned,” said Xavi. “What the players do on the field is a different thing. There was aggression there, so I’m surprised they rescinded the red card.”