Article by Mihai Șovei – Published on Sunday, 01 March 2026, 14:59 / Updated on Sunday, 01 March 2026 14:59
Jose Mourinho, Benfica's coach, on Sunday prefaced the match his team will play at Gil Vicente's ground, in the 24th stage of the Portuguese championship.
Among the topics discussed during the press conference, the Lusitanian technician also spoke about Gianluca Prestianni, the player accused of having addressed racist insults to Vinicius during the Champions League match against Real Madrid.
Jose Mourinho: “I want to be impartial in a case that could be of great gravity”
Ahead of Madrid's return from the Champions League, the Benfica coach was accused of not speaking up enough about the racism case involving Gianluca Prestianni and Vinicius Junior. One of Mourinho's challengers was even Alvaro Arbeloa, the coach of the “galacticos”.
“What do you expect from the players in terms of behaviour? How do you respond to critics who accuse you of avoiding talking about racism, especially the Real Madrid coach?”was the question asked by the journalist.
“I love Alvaro Arbeloa and I will continue to love him, but I think I made the right decision, not him. I mentioned this at the press conference in Madrid, when I was confronted with the statements of Alvaro and a player accusing Prestianni. And I said then: “I want to be balanced, neither to defend mine nor to attack the other”.
I want to be impartial in a case that could be of great gravity. What I said, waste ten minutes reading the statement, is about the presumption of innocence. If, as a citizen, I am a person who rejects any kind of prejudice or idiocy, I say that I have done it and others have not.
Vinicius (left), in full verbal conflict with Gianluca Prestianni (Benfica) / photo: Imago Images
If, I repeat many times, if my player did not respect these principles, which are mine and Benfica's, his career with a coach called Mourinho and in a club like Benfica ends. I am not a scholar, but I am not an ignoramus, and the presumption of innocence is a right. If you want me to repeat 20 times what I reject, I repeat.
I continue with “if”, unfortunately UEFA, in order to remove the player from the match, discovered article 4206328 as a reason to suspend him, and they also did not put the “if” that should have been put. If the player is really guilty, I won't look at him the way I did and I'm done, but I have to put a lot of “ifs” before“, said Jose Mourinho, according to abola.pt.
Before the return from Madrid, UEFA provisionally suspended the Argentinian player.
