Gianluca Prestianni receives ban for ‘homophobic conduct’ following Vinicius Jr incident
Prestianni has already served a one-match ban, while a further three games of his punishment have been suspended for two years
Gianluca Prestianni has received a six-game ban, with three of those matches suspended and one of them already served, for “homophobic conduct” after Real Madrid ’s Vinicius Jr said he was racially abused by the Benfica and Argentina player during a Champions League match in February. The ruling follows an investigation into “discriminatory behaviour” by Uefa , after Vinicius Jr alleged Prestianni had made a racist slur towards him. Prestianni denied the charge of using racist language and is said to have claimed that he had instead used an “anti-gay” slur.
Prestianni was provisionally suspended from the return leg of the Champions League play-off between the teams two months ago, so he will only be sidelined for two further matches unless he commits another offence during a two-year probationary period. Uefa’s ruling on Friday confirmed the following: To suspend SL Benfica player Gianluca Prestianni for a total of six Uefa club and/or representative national team official matches for which he would otherwise be eligible, for discriminatory (i. e.
homophobic) conduct. The suspension for three of these matches is subject to a probationary period of two years. This decision (i.
e. the six-match suspension) includes the one-match provisional suspension served by the player during Uefa Champions League 2025/26 knock-out play-off match played on 25 February 2026 between Real Madrid CF and SL Benfica. To request Fifa to extend worldwide the above-mentioned suspension.