Brazil national team, forceful against Robinho and Dani Alves for cases of sexual abuse

The Brazilian National Team spoke for the first time about the cases of two of its former figures, Dani Alves and Robinho, convicted of rape against women.

The Brazilian team's statement was a request from various sectors of Brazil, but the pressure increased with the recent conviction against the full-back in Spain and the former forward's imprisonment this Friday in Brazil.

“As coach of the national team I have the obligation to speak out,” said coach Dorival Júnior, 61, at a press conference at Wembley Stadium, where on Saturday he will make his debut on the 'Canarinha' bench in a friendly against England.

“It is a difficult moment for us. First of all, I think of the families of the people involved, and especially of the victims involved in these episodes that occur every day in our country and around the world, and that suddenly are not they try, they are silenced, because people don't have a voice,” he added.

The coach recalled that he met Robinho in 2010 and 2015 at Santos, the team that Pelé made famous.

The former attacker was arrested on Thursday in Brazil, where he will serve a nine-year prison sentence for a group rape committed in 2013, when he was defending AC Milan. With the 'Canarinha' he scored 28 goals in one hundred games, including clashes in the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and the titles in the 2005 and 2009 Confederations Cups and the 2007 Copa América.

“If there really was and has been proven some type of crime, it must be punished. As much as it pains me to say this about a person with whom I have always had an exceptional relationship,” she stated.

“I'm sorry for everything that everyone involved will go through from then on in their lives. What I can do is help them with prayers, nothing more,” he said.

Later, in a statement, the directors of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), together with the 'Selecao' technical commission, expressed their solidarity “with the victims of the two brutal crimes committed by the former players.”

The president of the CBF, Ednaldo Rodrigues, pointed out that “it is shameful that an athlete feels comfortable committing that type of perversity” with the Brazilian jersey, and that he pretends that “what he achieved through sport can protect him from any penalty.” In an environment where “machismo prevails,” he added, men have to “fight, not only sexual violence, but all types of violence.”

“The two cases, which involve players who were stars of the Brazilian Soccer Team, one of the greatest cultural icons of our country, cannot end with the conviction of the two culprits. It is essential that the brave attitude of the victims inspires more and more women not to remain silent in the face of atrocities of this order. More than that: in an environment where machismo prevails, we, men, must be on the front line to combat not only sexual violence, but all types of violence,” says the Federation.

Alves was sentenced in February to four and a half years in prison for raping a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022. A Spanish court on Wednesday authorized his release from prison if he pays bail of one million euros, while the appeals are resolved. against his sentence.

Full-back Danilo asked the CBF to carry out awareness-raising processes in Brazilian football to form “reflective thinking” in men.

“Especially for young people, which is where we can form this reflective thinking in a more genuine way, putting ourselves in the shoes of women in an empathetic way,” she said at another press conference in London.

The defender, however, did not comment directly on the cases of Alves or Robinho.

The silence of the 'Seleção' had been harshly criticized by women linked to the world of baseball, including the Brazilian internationals. Ary Borges and Kerolin. So did the president of Palmeiras de Sao Paulo, Leila Pereira, appointed head of the Brazilian team delegation for the friendlies against England and Spain (on Tuesday in Madrid). “No one says anything, but as a woman here, at the head of the delegation, I have to speak out,” she told the UOL portal on Thursday.

SPORTS AND AFP

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