Members of the Police Sports Violence Unit prevented Peñarol fans from entering the Campeón del Siglo Stadium with Mothers and Relatives of Disappeared Detainees badges. The incident occurred this Saturday during the coal meeting with Club Atlético Boston River.
Given the events, the president of Club Atlético Peñarol, Juan Ignacio Ruglio, sent a note to the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) in which he denounced the impediment. In this he explains two different situations. On the one hand, Ruglio points out to the AUF that “the security watcher of the match” informed the Peñarol Security Commission “about a flag hanging on the Cataldi stand (of the Champion of the Century Stadium) with a daisy without a petal. As is public knowledge, he represents the disappeared detainees during the military dictatorship in our country. The top manager of the mirasoles notes that said flag “did not have any offensive, political and much less violent legend, quite the opposite.”
On the other hand, it reports an “even more serious” situation, in which it received “dozens of comments about alleged officials from the Montevideo Police Department’s Violence in Sports Unit, who without any identification in sight, nor presenting themselves as such”, they prevented Peñarol fans from entering the stadium “with t-shirts or badges with daisies without a petal”.
“Attack on freedom of expression”
Ruglio pointed out that the Peñarol Security Commission allowed the entry of these fans with the badges but that after entering they were intercepted by police officers and “they held their shirts to gain access to the stands of the Champion of the Century Stadium.”
The aurinegro president expresses in the note his “annoyance” at what he qualifies as an “attack on freedom of expression”, on an issue that “nothing affects the sports spectacle” and that “has no political, offensive or discriminatory relevance ». For Ruglio, this situation “cuts off the rights of citizens in a private setting.” At the same time, he points out that there are no national regulations or provisions of the AUF that prohibit entry to stadiums with said emblems.
