Gianluca Prestianni facing huge 'minimum ban' as UEFA announce suspension

Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni faces a huge minimum ban if he is found guilty of racially abusing Real Madrid star Vinicius Junior.

Vinicius reported the Argentinian winger, 20, to the match referee over claims of racial abuse during the second half of the Champions League play-off first leg tie between the two sides last week.

The Real Madrid star had put the Spanish giants ahead on 50 minutes with what was the only goal of the game.

As both teams were preparing for the restart, Prestianni walked towards Vinicius and appeared to utter several words towards him, with his shirt covering his mouth.

Prestianni denies that he made any racist comments towards Vinicius.

Vinicius accused Prestianni of racially abusing him (Image: Getty)

UEFA opened an investigation into the incident, and provisionally suspended him on Monday as their investigation continues.

A UEFA statement on the matter reads: "Following the appointment of a UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector (EDI) to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour ... and upon request of the EDI with an interim report, the UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) today decided to provisionally suspend Mr. Gianluca Prestianni for the next (1) UEFA club competition match for which he would otherwise be eligible for the prima facie violation of Article 14 of the UEFA Disciplinary Regulations related to a discriminatory behaviour.

"This is without prejudice to any ruling that the UEFA disciplinary bodies may subsequently make following the conclusion of the ongoing investigation and its respective submission to the UEFA disciplinary bodies."

Back in 2013, UEFA published a document titled 'European Football titled against racism' - an 11-point policy related to sanctioning players found guilty of racial abuse during a match.

Point eight of the document reads: "Any player or team official found guilty of racist conduct must be suspended for at least 10 matches (or a corresponding period of time for club representatives)."

Vinicius Junior reported the incident to match referee Francois Letexier (Image: Getty)

This is a similar approach to what is in place at club level across various European leagues.

The FA, for instance, recommended match-based sanctions of between six to 12 games for 'almost all acts of discrimination by individual participants' in English football back in 2020.

As things stand, and until a final verdict is reached on Vinicius' complaint, Prestianni will only miss the Champions League play-off second leg against Real Madrid on Wednesday, February 25.