Benfica winger Gianluca Prestianni has taken to social media to express his disgust with UEFA, after his provisional one-game ban was upheld, keeping him out of their Champions League play-off second leg with Real Madrid. A UEFA investigation is currently ongoing into discriminatory abuse, after Vinicius Junior accused him of racist abuse.
UEFA decided to hand Prestianni a ban based on the evidence already gathered by the investigation, but if the ban is upheld, then he will be suspended for a minimum of ten games. Prestianni traveled to Madrid with the rest of his teammates and trained on Tuesday night, but on Wednesday, UEFA rejected Benfica’s appeal, as per Diario AS.
Prestianni responds on social media – ‘They don’t even hide it’
A decision that has not gone down well with Prestianni at all. He took to social media, quote tweeting an original from ‘Diego Padre’ saying ‘They ban Prestianni without proof and don’t sanction Valverde with obvious proof. It’s infuriating, they are the biggest mafia on the Earth’, referring to Real Madrid. Prestianni responded to that tweet with the following addition of his own.
“Throwing a punch without the ball, you can do it, you can see it and no sanction. Sanctioning without proof, you can do it, you can see it. Now they’re not even hiding it a little bit with Real. It’s embarassing.”
What was Prestianni referring to?
The original tweet goes back to the first leg too, where Fede Valverde is seen striking Samuel Dahl with a closed fist. Benfica reported the Uruguayan to UEFA for violent conduct, but the governing body decided not to act on it. Valverde is set to be available for the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu as a result. Benfica President Rui Costa had also complained about the lack of action on the Valverde incident.
