A Spanish court has handed down an eight-month suspended prison sentence to a man for online racist abuse targeting Real Madrid players Vinicius Junior and Antonio Rüdiger. “The individual, who operates under different aliases on the Marca online forum, made serious racist insults against our players Vinicius Junior and Rüdiger,” the club said. “The court has ordered the defendant to be sentenced to eight months in prison and banned from participating in the forum for 20 months.” The defendant was found guilty of two racially motivated offences against players, as well as contempt of religion. In the case of the German defender, the suspended prison sentence will be conditional on the defendant’s participation in an anti-discrimination programme. Real Madrid said this was the second criminal conviction for racist insults against its players. Three Valencia fans were previously sentenced to eight months in prison on June 10 for racist insults towards the Brazilian winger in May. The incident sparked widespread debate about whether Spain was doing enough to eradicate racism in football.