The president of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), Ednaldo Rodriguesreferred this Friday to the rape convictions of Robson de Souza ‘Robinho’ and Daniel Alves as “one of the most disastrous chapters of Brazilian football” and expressed his support for their victims.
“It is shameful that a player feels comfortable committing this type of perversity“Believing that what he achieved through sport will somehow protect him from any punishment,” the CBF’s top leader, who is in London to attend Saturday’s friendly with England, said in a note.
Rodrigues’ statement comes a day after the president of Palmeiras, Leila Pereira, in her capacity as head of the CBF delegation in this national team break, condemned that “no one” from the world of football had spoken out about the prison sentences that Robinho and Dani Alves have received for rape.
Rodrigues now stated that “the two cases, which involve players who were stars of the Brazilian team, one of the greatest cultural icons” of the country, and that “they cannot end with the conviction of the two culprits.”
In his opinion, “it is essential that the brave attitude of the victims inspire more and more women not to remain silent in the face of such atrocities“.
In the case of the former Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan player, he entered prison on Thursday in Brazil to begin serving a nine-year prison sentence for participating in a group rape of a young Albanian woman in a Milan nightclub in 2013.
He was firmly convicted by the Italian Justice and last Wednesday the Superior Court of Justice of Brazil approved the sentence to be carried out in the country, once The Brazilian Constitution prohibits the extradition of its natural-born citizens.
For its part, Alves was sentenced in the first instance by the Spanish Justice to four and a half years prison for a crime of sexual assault, after rape a woman in a nightclub in Barcelona, in December 2022.
However, in the absence of the resolution of the appeals, the Barcelona Court put him on Wednesday a bail of one million euros to be provisionally releasedmoney that he has been trying to collect since then.
Neither the Brazilian clubs that both players played for, nor the current or past idols of the Canarinha, have spoken about these casesdespite growing demands from the press and social media for them to do so.
The first to do so was Pereira: “No one says anything, but I, as a woman, here as head of the national team delegation, have to take a position. This is a slap in the face for all of us women, especially the case of Daniel Alves, who paid for his freedom“, he denounced.
In the face of social pressure, Rodrigues pointed out that the sentences of Robinho and Alves “put an end to one of the most disastrous chapters in Brazilian football.”
“The CBF, all its leaders and the technical commission of the Brazilian team, They stand in solidarity with the victims of the two brutal crimes committed by the former players“, he pointed.
Rodrigues recognized that “machismo prevails” in football and that men need “to be on the front line to combat not only sexual violence, but all types of violence.”
He also stressed that the ‘amarela’ t-shirt is more than a uniform and “it is up to those who wear it to defend the feelings and values of the country.”
Keep reading:
· Dani Alves and his fleeting time with UNAM Pumas
· “I’m not going to run away”: Dani Alves asks for his provisional release
· Robinho is arrested and imprisoned for gang rape: How much is the sentence?
· The Brazilian Football Confederation repudiates the racist gestures towards the father of Endrick, Real Madrid promise