The president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), Ednaldo Rodrigues, asked Conmebol this Friday to toughen the sanctions against racist demonstrations due to the various incidents that occurred this month in Copa Libertadores matches.
Rodrigues expressed his concern about insults suffered by Brazilian fans in three games of the tournament in the last two weeks. He added that the president of Conmebol, Alejandro Domínguez, promised to call a meeting to discuss the matter.
“These cases of racism in soccer, mainly in Libertadores matches, have generated great concern and a lot of indignation and sadness in the CBF,” Rodrigues said.
He assured that in their conversation, Domínguez also declared himself outraged and anticipated the note that the entity released this Friday on the matter.
He added that he hopes that the meeting called by Domínguez will serve for Conmebol to “ratify and toughen the sanctions provided to punish racism.”
He added that he has discussed the matter with FIFA since last year and that, given the progress of the talks, he decided to call a meeting next June so that all those involved can discuss ways to eradicate racism from Brazilian soccer.
“We will invite FIFA, Conmebol, all the clubs in Brazil, all the federations, the sports courts, the Prosecutor’s Office, the press and all those involved so that we can launch a strong and national crusade against prejudice. and, mainly, against racism in football”, he stated.
On April 14, the Fortaleza club demanded an exemplary sanction from the Argentine authorities and Conmebol for the offenses their fans received at the Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires in the Copa Libertadores match won 2-0 by River Plate.
The entity alluded to the behavior of a River Plate fan who threw a banana at Fortaleza fans, an insult described as racist and which was recorded on videos.
On Tuesday, a Boca Juniors fan was arrested in Sao Paulo (and released the next day on bail) for gesturing against Corinthians fans.
The Sao Paulo club reported in a note that the Argentine fan was denounced by Brazilian fans for imitating a monkey at the Neo Química Arena stadium in Sao Paulo.
On Thursday night Flamengo lamented through a statement the “unfortunate scenes of racism” in the match in which they won 2-3 against Universidad Católica in Chile
“We can’t take that anymore. Severe measures have to be adopted”, remained the most popular club in Brazil.
In the note released this Friday “in the face of the latest cases of racist expressions in the entity’s tournaments,” Conmebol described as “absolutely unacceptable any manifestation of racism and other forms of violence in its tournaments.”
“Conmebol will promote changes in regulations to increase and toughen penalties in cases of racism. It also commits to designing and implementing new programs and actions aimed at definitively banishing this problem from South American football,” the entity said in a statement.
