The Superior Court of Sports Justice scheduled the trial of the former coach and current director of Internacional, Abel Braga, for February 12th.
Abel was reported under article 243-G of the Brazilian Code of Sports Justice, which talks about “performing a discriminatory, contemptuous or outrageous act, related to prejudice based on ethnicity, race, sex, sexual orientation, color, age, status as an elderly person or person with a disability”.
In 2025, during his presentation as a coach after the dismissal of Ramón Díaz, the coach said that he did not want his team training with a pink shirt, as it would look, according to him, like a “deer team”.
According to the CBJD, the punishment can vary between 5 and 10 games. He was denounced by the Arco-Íris LGBT Citizenship Group in the sporting field.
After avoiding Inter’s relegation to Series B, Abel Braga left his position as coach to work as one of the club’s directors.
Sorry
“I made a joke. Basically, he (D’Alessandro) made fun of everyone. I said: ‘Man, I don’t want my team training in pink shirts, it looks like a deer team'”, said Abel Braga at the time.
The Colorado idol praised the presence of Andrés D’Alessandro as director, .
After the negative repercussion of his speech, the 73-year-old coach took to social media and issued a p. Abel recognized the misplacement and stated that colors only define people’s characters.
“Colorados and Colorados, first of all, I recognize that I didn’t make a good statement about the color pink during my press conference. Before this proliferates, I apologize. Colors don’t define genders. What defines them is character. Internacional needs peace and a lot of work. Let’s go, let’s go, Inter!”, wrote the coach.
More controversial
Abel Braga, recalled the death of his 19-year-old son, João Pedro, aged 19, to defend himself against the accusations
“I want to make a statement about what happened at the last press conference, where I reported a joke that happened in training and that created a huge controversy. I’ve already apologized, I shouldn’t have said absolutely anything at that moment. I just want you to understand one little thing, I need to make this parenthesis because it’s my life. I lost a son at 19 years old. Who loses a son isn’t. I want you to understand that. It was a joke that I was the juvenile, I shouldn’t have said anything there and that’s it, that passed,” said Abel.
João Pedro Braga died in 2017, after falling from the roof of the building where he lived with his parents in Leblon, South Zone of Rio de Janeiro. Abel, at the time, was coach of Fluminense.
