MIAMI, Fla.–Government officials in Spain have launched an investigation in the alleged racists attacks against Brazilian soccer player Vinicius Jose Paixao de Oliveira Jr. also known as Vinicius Jr., during his team’s international game against Valencia.

The incident during Real Madrid’s match with Valencia is being treated as a possible hate crime, according to reports.

In a statement, government officials and prosecutors acknowledged Spain has a race issue but it would not be tolerated.

The country’s criminal code, which was adopted in 2018, punishes people convicted of public hate crimes including race, homophobic, anti-Semitic and religion by sentencing them up to four years in jail and fines.

The alleged racist chants against Vinicius Jr. fall under Spain’s public hate crimes law.

In addition, Valencia initially faced a five-match partial closure of Mestalla Stadium, where the alleged racial chants took place, and fined $45,000.

But the fine was reduced to three matches and a $27,000 fine by the Spanish Football Federation appeals committee.

The probe comes after Brazilian officials denounced the racial abuse against their countryman and urged the Spanish government and sports authorities to take action.

"Taking into account the seriousness of the facts and the occurrence of yet another inadmissible episode, the Brazilian government deeply regrets that, until now, effective measures have not been taken to prevent and avoid the repetition of these acts of racism," Brazil said in a statement.

Spain has been accused of hurling racist attacks on Vinicius Jr., when his team, Real Madrid was in town to play Valencia last week.

According to published reports, about hundreds of Valencia fans were singing "Vinicius is a money" when his team’s bus arrived at the stadium before the game.

The racist chants spilled to the game, which was stopped for 10 minutes while the 22-year-old, who’s the second top scorer in all competitions this season, briefly left the field for his own safety.

Officials, players and former players in Brazil and Spain showed solidarity with Vinícius after the alleged racist taunts from fans during Real Madrid’s 10 loss at Valencia in the Spanish league.

The foreign ministry confirmed that Ambassador Mar Fernandez Palacios was asked to inform on the incident that prompted President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to call on FIFA and LaLiga to act to stop racism taking root in soccer stadiums.

Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez condemned the racism and asked football the Spanish Football Federation to look at its wider culture of insulting players and managers.

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti agreed with Xavi, but also wanted to see drastic measures taken.

Atletico Madrid coach Diego Simeone told MD that this was an opportunity to make a change for Spain.

“This gives us the opportunity to do things to improve," he told reporters. "From these situations that are continuous, let’s see the people [involved]. It goes much deeper because we are talking about 19, 20, 23 year olds. They are young boys that don’t even know what they are doing. I would take advantage of it, it is a great opportunity to say enough is enough. In Spain we all get used to living in a very good way, and whoever doesn’t want to, will have to experience football in a different way”.

At the request of Brazil officials, Real Madrid filed a complaint with the Spanish State Attorney General’s Office over the incident and is currently being investigated as a hate crime.

Valencia is now cooperating with the Attorney General’s Office during the probe.