Palmeiras Luighi’s emotional statement after suffering from a case of racism in Paraguay in a game by Libertadores under-20 on Thursday night (6) caused a strong commotion in the middle.
Clubs and athletes published messages in support of the 18 -year -old athlete, who showed maturity by questioning the journalist who interviewed him after the match if he would ignore a fan’s monkey gesture.
“Seriously, will you not ask me about the act of racism that happened today with me? Is it serious? How long will we go through this? Tell me, how long? What are you doing with me is a crime, won’t you ask about it?”
Conmebol (South American Football Confederation) said it condemns the attacks and that “appropriate disciplinary measures will be implemented, and other actions are being evaluated in consultation with experts in the area.” It did not detail what you want to do and, sought by the report, did not want to speak up.
President Lula also used social networks to condemn racist acts. “Football means collective work, overcoming and respect. Racism means the failure of humanity. It is enough for hatred disguised as rivalry,” he wrote.
Conmebol says in the statute that its goal is to “promote football in South America respecting human rights, in a spirit of peace, understanding and clean game, ensuring that there is no discrimination in the field of football of an individual or group of people for political reasons, gender, religion, race, ethnic origin, nationality or any other reason.”
The disciplinary code of the entity establishes that the club whose fan is caught by committing discriminatory acts will be fined US $ 100,000 (R $ 576.8 thousand). In case of recurrence, the amount rises to US $ 400 thousand (R $ 2.3 million).
The punishments, the experts, although necessary, are far from being enough to end the demonstrations, which also go through each country’s own interpretation.
“Racism has various forms of manifestation. Paraguayan laws in relation to racism are not the same as in Brazil. The discussion of racism in Paraguay advances more in relation to indigenous peoples,” says Leda Maria da Costa, researcher at the Social Observatory of Football, UERJ (Rio de Janeiro State University).
She draws attention to the naturalness of Cerro Porteño, the referee and the police regarding the case, without any concrete action being taken.
“We also started claiming with the police itself and the third referee, but Banco do Cerro himself was going against, wanting to point to the game and trying to understand that it was normal. And that it is normal in the country, they think it is a provocation,” said João Paulo Sampaio, coordinator of Palmeiras base.
President of the club, Leila Pereira criticized the referee of the match for not paralyzing the game and said he will work for the exclusion of Cerro Porteño from the competition.
“This is not the first time this club attacks our athletes, our fans,” said the agent, adding that she was unable to contact Conmebol leaders. “I tried to talk to the President of Conmebol and could not,” he said, in reference to Paraguayan Alejandro Domínguez, who has commanded since 2016 the Confederation, whose headquarters is in Asuncion.
Possible punishment to the Paraguayan club should be decided in the coming days by the Conmebol Disciplinary Commission, based on the referee’s summary and the deputy of the match.
“There needs to be punishment, but also a process of education as broad as possible to form fans. That child [nos ombros do homem que fez os gestos racistas] He is suffering a learning of how to be racist, “says the researcher.
Professor of the Graduate Course Sociocultural History of Football, at the Department of History of USP (University of São Paulo), Flávio de Campos notes that, in the face of an permissive environment, the manifestations of racial nature extrapolated the matches of the main teams, reaching the grassroots categories and women’s football.
“We are in a violent and aggressive world, and football is not out of it. It is a mistake to see episodes of violence in football displaced from this violence that contemporary society is producing,” he says.
Álvaro Martin Ferreiro, a master’s degree in International Sports Law, evaluates that UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) has even more ways to try to curb racist acts compared to Conmebol.
He points out that, in addition to higher fines, the European Confederation foresees closed gates and banishment of fans such as punishment for racist demonstrations.
More drastic measures, however, such as the loss of punctuation in competitions, have not yet been ahead. “There are measures to take, but they are not executed.”
Vinicius Junior, one of the players who has suffered most from racism in recent years, has published a message in support of the Palmeiras player.
“Congratulations on the position, Mano. It’s sad, but be strong. Let’s go to this fight together. Until when, Conmebol? You never do anything. Never !!!!”, he wrote.
This Thursday, La Liga, an entity that organizes the Spanish Championship, filed a complaint about racism with the Basque police police. On February 26, a Real Sociedad fan insulted Vinicius Junior, also with gestures imitating a monkey.
The incident took place in the King Cup game, a tournament analogous to the Brazilian Cup and is not organized by La Liga. Even so, the members of the entity decided to pay the process, as part of their program to combat insults and violence in the stadiums.
There are 48 processes in all, the vast majority for racist offenses, of which almost half –23 – involve Vinicius Junior.
In June 2024, Spain’s court first sentenced to eight months in prison three valence fans accused of uttering racist insults against the Brazilian.
