Barcelona condemn racist abuse of Nigerian player

The Barcelona basketball team has condemned the racist abuse suffered by Nigerian player James Nnaji during their Spanish championship final victory over bitter rivals Real Madrid.

“Barcelona strongly condemns the racist insults suffered by first-team basketball player James Nnaji before game three of the final,” the team said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The club expects a firm response from the ACB [Spanish basketball league] against any racial or verbal insults.”

Images of the arrival of the Barcelona team bus at the WiZink centre in Madrid, where Tuesday’s match took place, showed several Madrid fans hurling insults at the Barcelona players.

According to local media, Nnaji was the target of racist insults.

“I want to talk about what happened here with James Nnaji. I think it’s regrettable. I hear a lot about Vinicius, and now it’s us who have to talk about what’s going on,” Barcelona basketball coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said later.

“It has to stop now. It doesn’t fit, I guess, with the values of Real Madrid and its supporters, and we have to be very angry about that,” he said.