The French referee discussed how he managed the homophobic incident during the Champions League match between Benfica and Real Madrid.
Two and a half months have passed, but the aftershocks and reactions to the incident involving Gianluca Prestianni and Vinicius Junior at the Estádio da Luz during the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 continue.
Alongside the two main protagonists, a third figure took center stage—not as a bystander but as both judge and participant in real time. French referee François Letexier officiated that match and was tasked with managing what at the time appeared to be an act of racism by the Argentine player from the Lisbon club.
The French official spoke to RMC to explain how he handled a situation that was, by all accounts, “unusual.”
“My priority at that moment is to gather all the information I can, because we don’t have all the necessary details,” the referee began.
“When a player comes up to me and tells me he was the victim of racist insults that I didn’t witness, I have to take what he says into account, but I cannot make a decision based solely on that—which seems legitimate to me,” he analyzed.
UEFA suspends Prestianni
The facts are clear: Prestianni was sanctioned by FIFA this past Wednesday, meaning his insults (not racist but homophobic, according to UEFA’s ruling) would keep him out of football even if the World Cup had begun and Scaloni decided to call him up.
Even so, without knowing exactly what happened beyond the accounts of both parties, Letexier stated that his goal was simply to leave the situation as clear as possible for everyone.
“It is necessary to explain to the different parties that the fact that I neither saw nor heard the incident prevents me from taking disciplinary measures,” acknowledged the French referee, who nonetheless insisted: “If I could avoid having to deal with this kind of incident, and if we could avoid such behavior, I would gladly do without it.”