Pep Guardiola spent four years managing in La Liga from 2008 to 2012 (Picture: Manchester City)
Pep Guardiola admits La Liga should learn from the Premier League about fighting racism after Vinicius Junior was abused – but feels that it a worldwide issue rather than in ‘one specific place’.
The Manchester City boss, who spent four years managing Barcelona in La Liga, believes it is a problem to ‘think we are better than our neighbours’ and says that racism is a ‘problem everywhere’.
Guardiola was asked about how La Liga can learn from the Premier League after Real Madrid player Vinicius Junior suffered more racist abuse on Sunday.
The Brazil international winger said Spain ‘belongs to racists’ after he was subjected to vile chants during a La Liga match against Valencia.
Real Madrid have since lodged a hate crime complaint to Spanish prosecutors while La Liga president Javier Tebas has offered a half-hearted apology.
Asked about racism in La Liga in his press conference on Friday, Guardiola said: ‘They should [learn from the Premier League].
‘Here they are so strict [on fighting racism]. They know what they have to do. [But] of course, racism is a problem everywhere, it is not in one specific place.
‘[It is a problem] thinking that we are better than our neighbours, we are better than the other one.
‘For all generations everywhere… Our ancestors come from migrants, wars, dictatorships and [sometimes] you have to move on from countries and build families there.
‘The problem is that there is [discrimination] everywhere. Not just gender or colour.
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‘Attitudes like believing our country is better than the other one, our language is better than the other one. We are all the same.
‘We have to accept diversity, it is the strength of a human being. We are still really, really far away from that. Hopefully we can get better in Spain but I’m not optimistic.
‘There are a lot of black people stepping forward to defend what they should not [need to] defend. Hopefully justice will help to do it.’
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‘Racism is a problem everywhere…’
