Corinthians players walked out and posed covering their mouths with their shirts in support of Vinicius Jr after he was allegedly racially abused by Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni. The team also wore a special jersey with the message: ‘Racism is a crime. Report it’.

Gianluca Prestianni, the Benfica forward, has been banned from facing Real Madrid on Wednesday amid the Vinícius Júnior racism investigation.

Prestianni, 20, could eventually face a suspension of more than 10 matches but, with inquiries ongoing, Uefa has removed him from the second leg of the Champions League play-off tie on a “provisional” basis.

A row erupted last Tuesday between the Portuguese and Spanish clubs after their match was delayed for 10 minutes when Vinícius reported abuse to the referee. Prestianni had his shirt collar pulled up to cover his mouth during an exchange with Vinícius, although the latter’s reaction indicated he believed he had been abused.

A likely explanation for Prestianni’s initial ban while proceedings continue is that he has admitted to Uefa that he used discriminatory language by claiming he used an “anti-gay” slur, rather than a racist attack on Vinicius Jr. He is said to have told investigators he used the derogatory term f—-t in the Spanish language which he believes was mistaken for monkey. It had also been reported in Spain that Madrid players were prepared to refuse to shake the accused player’s hand before kick-off on Wednesday.

Benfica alleged a “defamation campaign” had been launched on their player as the club doubled down on their denials of racism.

Vinícius, 25, immediately flagged a comment made by Prestianni to referee François Letexier during the match in Lisbon last Tuesday. Among those calling for action was Kylian Mbappé, who said he heard Prestianni racially abuse his Real Madrid team-mate. Mbappé said after the match that he heard Prestianni “say that Vinícius is a monkey, five times”.

Announcing the one-match ban, Uefa, the governing body of European football, said: “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 incident resulted in the game being stopped when Fifa’s anti-racism protocol was implemented. Ten games is Uefa’s minimum length of suspension for racist conduct, and its guidelines state that such disciplinary sanctions should be accompanied by awareness programmes run by the club.

Prestianni later denied the allegations in an Instagram post, saying that “at no time did I direct racist insults to Vini Junior, who regrettably misunderstood what he thought he heard”.

Uefa’s provisional ban comes a day after Benfica faced fresh criticism for posting images of players posing with a young black fan in an apparent attempt to underline their claims of not being a racist club.

An interim suspension of a player while investigations into allegations of racist abuse are ongoing is not without precedent for Uefa. In 2021, an initial one-match ban was issued to Slavia Prague defender Ondrej Kudela while an inquiry continued into his denial of racist conduct in a 2-0 Europa League win over Rangers at Ibrox. Kudela was subsequently banned for 10 games in Uefa competition.

Benfica, who last week said they stood by their player, issued a statement on Monday saying they “regret being deprived of the player while ‌the case is still under investigation and will appeal Uefa’s decision”. However, the club acknowledged the deadlines in question were unlikely to have any practical effect on the player being available for Wednesday’s match.