UEFA suspend Gianluca Prestianni after Vinicius Jr incident as statement released

Benfica forward Gianluca Prestianni has been provisionally suspended by UEFA and will not take part in the second leg of their Champions League play-off clash against Real Madrid.

On Tuesday (February 17), the first leg of the Champions League knockout play-off tie between Madrid and Benfica was halted for around 10 minutes after Vinicius Jr reported alleged racist abuse to referee Francois Letexier.

Letexier proceeded to make the crossed arms gesture to signal racist abuse following a conversation with the Brazilian, who left the field of play and sat in the Estadio da Luz dugout, refusing to play.

Vinicius ran over to the official following an interaction with Gianluca Prestianni.

After the full-time whistle, Vinicius released a statement condemning the incident. "Racists are, above all, cowards. They need to put their shirts in their mouths to show how weak they are," he wrote on Instagram.

"But they have the protection of others who, theoretically, have an obligation to punish them. Nothing that happened today is new in my life or in my team's life."

Taking to Instagram in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Prestianni denied making a racist slur.

"I want to clarify that at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Jr, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard," Prestianni wrote. "I was never racist with anyone and I regret the threats I received from Real Madrid players."

Vinicius Jr claims he was racially abused by Gianluca Prestianni. Image: Getty

Now, UEFA have confirmed that Prestianni has been provisionally suspended for Benfica's upcoming clash against Real Madrid, which will take part on Wednesday (February 25).

A statement on UEFA's website read: "Following the appointment of a UEFA Ethics and Disciplinary Inspector (EDI) to investigate allegations of discriminatory behaviour during the UEFA Champions League 2025/2026 Knock-out Play-off match between SL Benfica and Real Madrid CF on 17 February 2026, 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 (DR) 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."

The statement added: "Further information about this matter will be made available in due course."

If he is found guilty, Prestianni could face a minimum 10-game ban from UEFA, according to Sky News reporter Rob Harris.