MUNICH, Germany (AFP) — Vincent Kompany has criticised Jose Mourinho’s handling of the racism controversy involving Real Madrid forward Vinicius Junior, saying the Benfica coach’s comments after the midweek Champions League match were a “huge mistake”.

Brazil international Vinicius accused Benfica midfielder Gianluca Prestianni of racially abusing him during Real’s 1-0 win in Lisbon on Tuesday, telling the referee he had been called a “monkey” during a confrontation with the Argentine.

After the match, Mourinho hit out at Vinicius for inciting Benfica’s players and fans with his celebration following his winning goal in the first leg of the knockout phase play-off tie. UEFA has said it would investigation “allegations of discriminatory behaviour”.

Bayern Munich Coach Kompany, who reflected on his past experiences of racism as a player, said what he found most troubling was what unfolded off the pitch.

“You have the leader of an organisation, Jose Mourinho, who basically attacks the character of Vinicius Junior by bringing in the type of celebration to discredit what Vinicius is doing at this moment,” Kompany told reporters on Friday.

“And for me, in terms of leadership, it’s a huge mistake and it’s something that we should not accept.”

Kompany said talk of Vinicius’s celebration should not distract from the player’s immediate response to Prestianni’s remarks, which showed genuine emotional distress.

“You have Vini Jr who, when you watch the action itself, his reaction cannot be faked. You can see it. His reaction is an emotional reaction. I don’t see any benefit for him to go to the referee and put all this misery on his shoulders,” said Kompany.

“There is absolutely no reason for Vini Jr to go and do this, and he does it, and when he does it, I think in his mind he’s doing it more because it’s the right thing to do in that moment.”

However, Kompany said it would be difficult to prove the allegations of racist abuse against Prestianni unless the player admitted to doing so.

“You have a player [Prestianni] who’s hiding what he’s saying in his shirt… You have a player who’s complaining, you have a player who says he didn’t do it, and I think unless the player himself comes forward, it’s difficult, it’s a difficult case,” said the Belgian.

Despite the criticism, Kompany said he hopes the situation can still lead to accountability and growth. If Prestianni did use racist language, he said, there should remain a space for apology and for disciplinary bodies to consider remorse.

“If it is true that the player from Benfica has said something as bad as what he said, I would love a situation where there’s still a room where somebody can apologise and say, ‘I’m sorry. I made a mistake.’

“This has an impact on the sentence as well, so the sentence should be A or B. But if you admit that you’ve made a mistake, there should be an opportunity as well to say that, ‘Hey, nobody’s perfect.’ “

Turning back to Mourinho, Kompany said he’d “never heard a person say anything bad” about him, and would not judge the Portuguese based on the incident at Estadio da Luz.

“He’s made a mistake. Hopefully in the future it won’t happen like this again and that we can move forward and grow.”