‘I’ve been disappointed with my club’ - Benfica, the team with the eyes of the world on it

Benfica supporters, as always before a home match at Estadio da Luz, have gathered by the statue of iconic club legend Eusebio.

They meet friends, they take selfies, they drink, they eat and they discuss how many goals their team will put past Primeira Liga whipping boys AVS (eight points from 22 matches) this evening.

On a gloriously sunny February evening in Lisbon, with temperatures approaching 20C (68F), metaphorical dark clouds are hanging over this grand old club. The omnipresent figure of Eusebio, the Black striker who scored 473 goals in a Benfica shirt, feels more pertinent than usual given what happened here on Tuesday night.

It should have been a proud occasion when Benfica took on Real Madrid in the Champions League knockout round play-offs, just a few weeks after goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin’s football miracle of a last-minute goal in the same fixture.

There was a stadium record crowd of 66,387 in Lisbon to welcome Real, but it turned into a night to remember for all the wrong reasons when 20-year-old midfielder Gianluca Prestianni was accused of racial abuse by Vinicius Junior, the allegation being that the Argentinian called the Brazilian “a monkey” on several occasions, an accusation he strenuously denies.

That incident was bad enough, but it is Benfica and their manager Jose Mourinho’s reactions in the aftermath that have somehow managed to further muddy the water of a racism allegation.

A video posted by Benfica’s official X account bizarrely attempted (and failed) to prove that Real’s players had made up the racist slur.

“As the images demonstrate, given the distance, the Real Madrid players could not have heard what they claim to have heard,” Benfica claimed.

It was a baseless defence that served no purpose other than to aggravate an already deeply sensitive situation. Benfica even added in a statement: “The club regrets the defamation campaign of which the player has been a victim.”

Mourinho had already aggravated the situation, seeming to suggest that Vinicius Jr’s celebration after scoring had antagonised the players and seemed to present the mere fact that Eusebio exists as a reason for Benfica not being a racist club, ie, well, Eusebio was Black, so how can Prestianni be racist?

It was work experience kid logic and the backlash to Mourinho has been substantial, be it Bayern Munich boss Vincent Kompany labelling the comments “unacceptable”, former France international Lilian Thuram calling him “small-minded” or Clarence Seedorf saying he had made a “big mistake”.

A glaring spotlight has shone on Benfica from all quarters. Club legend Luisao reportedly said he was “ashamed” by Prestianni’s “racist act”. Even the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, spoke of his shock at the alleged incident.

“I’ve been disappointed with my club,” Ricardo Silva, a Benfica fan since as far back as he can remember, tells The Athletic.

“A very serious allegation was made and it wasn’t given enough respect. There will always be idiots but I know there is not racism at the heart of Benfica, of course not. But the reaction after was too much, especially from Mourinho.

“He is a legend of Portuguese football but I don’t like the idea of people thinking he represents me. I’ll be a fan for many years but he will be here a short time and has disrespected the name of Benfica and of Eusebio.”

‘UNDER SIEGE’ was the front-page headline from big-selling sport newspaper Record on Thursday, reflecting a club and a city under verbal attack. Another newspaper, A Bola, focused on the “worldwide reaction” to the racism allegations.

If it feels like the world versus Benfica, then a calm, quiet, easy win over AVS feels like a sanctuary. The game, which kicks off at 6pm as the sun begins to set over Lisbon, is played out in a family-friendly atmosphere. There’s a Mexican wave after 18 minutes, Rafa Silva scores an audacious close-range rabona and Benfica are home and hosed at half-time with a 3-0 lead.

Prestianni isn’t involved — he’s suspended after picking up five league bookings. In his absence, there are no Prestianni banners, or chants, or indeed any fans with his name on the back of their shirt. He is not a key figure in this Benfica team and there is no great wave of defiant support for him.

When Prestianni does feature in the Estadio da Luz again, he will likely receive near-universal backing from Benfica supporters.

That’s not to suggest support on the fans’ behalf of any alleged racism, but because of the us-against-the-world depiction you see in Record or A Bola, Benfica under siege, etc.

This modus operandi is not exclusive to Lisbon, or Portugal. It’s a societal question and a reflection of football’s exhausting tribalist rhetoric.

Did Marseille turn against Alvaro Gonzalez when he was accused of using a racist slur towards Paris Saint-Germain’s Neymar during Le Classique in 2020? No, he was immediately offered full support by the entire club. “We are sure that Alvaro is not racist,” manager Andre Villas-Boas said immediately after the incident. “Olympique de Marseille represents multiculturality.” No charges were brought against Gonzalez.

When Luis Suarez racially abused Manchester United’s Patrice Evra in 2011, an offence for which the forward was banned for eight matches, did Liverpool castigate one of their own? No, his team-mates wore t-shirts with Suarez’s face on, fans chanted his name in support and even seven years later, Evra was still being booed and called “one lying b******” by a minority of people on the Kop when the Frenchman played at Anfield for West Ham.

Did Chelsea supporters demand that John Terry be stripped of the captaincy or kicked out of the club when he was accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand (for which Terry was found not guilty in a criminal court but was charged and banned by the FA)? Nope, they paraded their ‘captain, leader, legend’ banner as usual and backed him to the hilt.

Against AVS, some might argue Estadio da Luz doesn’t exactly feel like an arena that stokes racism when one of the biggest cheers of the night is for the late entrance of a Black striker, 18-year-old Anisio Cabral, around whom there is so much buzz from the Benfica fanbase following goalscoring league debut last month.

But that’s not the point. Whether Prestianni said what he said, it’s the club’s conduct in assuming not only innocence but also, consequently, accusing Vinicius Jr of false accusations that is hard to stomach.

“Whoever decided to post those tweets should be dismissed,” prominent Benfica supporter David Falcao, who runs the Coluna Vermelha fan account on X, says.

“I don’t think it was an easy situation to handle, but I felt somewhat embarrassed by it.”

David believes Benfica’s use of X has changed in recent months, using it to highlight refereeing mistakes. However, he does believe Mourinho’s comments may have been slightly misinterpreted.

“I’m not particularly fond of Mourinho but I don’t think the way people have been speaking about him is entirely fair,” he added.

“I never got the impression that he was trying to justify racial slurs with the celebration. My understanding is that he spoke with Vinicius, who said one thing, and with Prestianni, who said another, and Mourinho chose to remain neutral.

“He then added that he didn’t understand why Vinicius celebrated that way after such a great goal, especially in a stadium that hadn’t been particularly aggressive towards him.”

We could ask the man himself what he meant, but Mourinho was muzzled for his post-match press conference on Saturday.

“I don’t want to comment,” he said when the subject of Vinicius Jr is raised, before a press officer interjects and states that due to UEFA’s ongoing investigation, Mourinho will not speak about the issue.

Mourinho did add: “I repeat that it has been difficult for everyone. But I’m not going to specify the level of difficulty now. Difficult for everyone. But today, they and I were able to be professional and do our job in the best way we could.”

On this occasion, he is correct. A normal, professional match in the Primeira Liga, but on Wednesday, for the return leg in the Bernabeu, the eyes of the football world will once again turn to Benfica.

How they react — on and off the field — will tell us whether any lessons have been learnt from last week’s shameful episode.

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