The incident occurred in the Argentine party in Brazilian territory against São Paulo on the last group stage in the continental tournament.
Photo: EFE – Isaac Fontana
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In a new chapter that dares the Copa Libertadores, the Venezuelan defender Miguel Navarro, player of workshops in Córdoba, publicly denounced having been the victim of a xenophobic insult by the Paraguayan Damián Bobadilla, midfielder of São Paulo. The incident occurred on the end of the match played at the Morumbí Stadium, after the goal that sealed the 2-1 victory for the Brazilian team.
According to Navarro after the match, everything was triggered when he claimed greater speed to the referee to resume the game, while São Paulo players began to have time. That was when Bobadilla snapped: “Venezuelan starving”. The verbal aggression, with an obvious discriminatory burden, emotionally overflowed the workshop player, who even thought about leaving the field.
“I wanted to leave the countryside, but we had no more changes. For my colleagues I decided to stay, but my head was no longer in the game,” he said in tears at the end of the match.
In his social networks, the Venezuelan was overwhelming: “I will never be ashamed of my roots. I will go to the last consequences in front of the act of xenophobia that I lived today in Brazil at the hands of Damián Bobadilla. In football there is no place for hate acts.”
The message was direct, bluntly, and sought to make visible a reality that many prefer to sweep under the carpet: contempt for soccer players from certain countries for their nationality or socioeconomic situation. “I don't think you can do much against mental poverty,” he added with pain.
The institutional reaction of workshops soon arrived. The Cordoba club issued a statement expressing its “most energetic repudiation” to the act of xenophobia and providing total support for Navarro. “There is no place for hate in football. Football is a tool for integration, respect and union between cultures,” they said.
For its part, the Brazilian military police tried to locate Bobadilla to present it to the Special Criminal Justice (JECRIM), but the player had already left the stadium. From the Paulista club they assured that, if required, he will appear to declare before the police station of crimes of sports intolerance (drade).
Bobadilla apologized
The Paraguayan steering wheel Damián Bobadilla, of São Paulo, apologized this Wednesday for having used a xenophobic insult against the Venezuelan Miguel Navarro on Tuesday in a match in the Copa Libertadores.
“In the fever I reacted badly and I apologize publicly. If I have the opportunity to talk to him (Navarro) I will apologize too,” Bobadilla said on Wednesday in a video released by São Paulo, who won the 2-1 game.
“I had a couple of words of words with the workshop player where I was offended first, also treated with a little contempt. I never intended to discriminate against anyone,” explained the Paraguayan international, son of the exporter of the Guaraní team, Aldo Bobadilla.
It is not the first time that workshops denounces episodes of discrimination in Brazil. Navarro recalled it: “Last year two colleagues had problems with the police. It is a scandal.” The repetition of these cases opens an uncomfortable question: how much are you willing to tolerate South American football before taking exemplary measures?
Gol screams cannot continue covering the screams of hate. T -shirts should not serve as a shield for verbal violence. What is at stake is not just a party: it is the respect, dignity and future of a sport that, if it wants to remain popular, cannot be complicit in exclusion.
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