The four River Plate players detained in the act on suspicion of racial insult during the match against Grêmio, in São Paulo, were taken to the capital’s penitentiary located in the Carandiru neighborhood, after the court converted their arrest into preventative this Saturday (21 ).
Candela Díaz, Camila Duarte, Juana Cangaro and Milagros Díaz are now awaiting the result of a habeas corpus request sent by lawyer Thais Sankari, who represents them, so that they can respond in freedom.
Wanted by SheetSankari said he will not speak at the request of the Argentine club.
The athletes were arrested after the match between River and Grêmio, in the semi-final of the Brasil Ladies Cup tournament, which was played at the Canindé stadium, in the capital of São Paulo. The game was interrupted in the first half, after the Rio Grande do Sul team equalized in the 38th minute.
In the images from the TV broadcast, it is possible to see the midfielder of the Buenos Aires team Candela Díaz imitating a monkey towards one of the ball boys in the match. Afterwards, a group of River players attack him.
A general confusion ensued with players from both teams, technical committees and stadium security guards. The game was stopped for 30 minutes and the Grêmio athletes left the field.
The semi-final was declared over after referee Marcio Mattos dos Santos expelled six athletes from the Argentine team — the four who were arrested, goalkeeper Lara Esponda and midfielder Julieta Romero, scorer of the first goal of the match —, who was left without her number. minimum number of athletes to continue playing. With this, the team from Rio Grande do Sul advanced to the final, where they will face Bahia, this Sunday.
“Situations like this cannot continue to happen. How long are we going to keep pretending that there is no racism, that there is no machismo?”, said Thaissan Passos, coach of Gurias Grêmio — as the Grêmio women’s team is known — in an interview with SporTV after the episode.
“I hope that in the next moment we will talk about football, about tactics, about results. And not what happened today. It’s a shame and this ends up tarnishing the competition and the greatness that is the development of women’s football and the moment we are in living”
According to Thaissan’s own report and a note of repudiation published by Grêmio on Friday, the athletes were also the target of racist insults when defending the ball boy. The club regretted the episode and reported the registration of a police report. “We will do everything possible to ensure that the case results in punishment for those responsible”, says an excerpt from the text.
Through the women’s team’s social networks, River also spoke out, expressing its “most absolute repudiation of the discriminatory gestures that occurred in the meeting with Grêmio for the Brasil Ladies Cup 2024”. He said he was taking “appropriate disciplinary measures” and would continue working to eliminate this type of behavior.
The team ended up being expelled from the competition, which resulted in a suspension for the next two years according to the regulations.
“We reiterate our respect for River Plate-ARG, an institution that participated in the 2021 and 2024 editions, but it is worth highlighting that in addition to the sporting aspect, the Ladies Cup also values the educational and social bias present in the complementary actions to the event. We will never condone with this type of episode within the championship”, states the note.
The organization also informed that it has implemented a new guideline to the regulation that provides for “the summary banning of any participating club or team, whose athletes and managers perform racist gestures on the field of play”.
