Paulista: "Everybody needs to be respected. We have to treat everybody the same"

One of the Valencia CF captains, Gabriel Paulista spoke to VCF Media on Wednesday to give his version of the events of last Sunday. The defender was one of those closest to Mouctar Diakhaby when the player was on the receiving end of racial abuse, and he remains firm in his criticism of the incident.

"Information reached the dressing room that if we left the pitch we could lose the game, and could also be docked points by LaLiga. Diakhaby said that he didn't want that, and that we should go back out to play. That's what happened. We stand beside him.

"You can't offend somebody like that. Many things can happen on a football pitch. A lot happens during a game. However, these kinds of things can't happen. Everybody needs to be respected. We have to treat everybody the same."