A sports field in Brazil approved the exclusion from the field for the rest of his life of midfielder Marcus Vinícius Alves ‘Romário’, the first of Brazil’s football players to try to join a network that arranged matches to avoid a gambling mafia favor.
The verdict was handed down this Monday by the First Disciplinary Committee of the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD), which also sentenced the now-former footballer and former player of the Vila Nova club to pay a fine of 25,000 reais (approximately $5,000). ).
In the same trial, the court sentenced midfielder Gabriel Domingos, another accused of match-fixing and also a former Vila Nova player, to a 720-day court suspension and a fine of 15,000 reais ($3,000). . ).
The decision in the first instance can still be appealed to the full court by the two sentenced.
The magistrates concluded that the two Vila Nova footballers accepted bribes in exchange for enforcing yellow or red cards, committing penalty kicks or harming their teams in order to favor the sports betting mafia.
Romário, 21, was found guilty of violating Article 242 of Brazil’s Code of Sports Justice, which prohibits football players from “giving or promising an undue advantage to an athlete in order to influence the outcome of a match or the like”.
His partner, on the other hand, was convicted of violating Article 243, which prohibits “deliberately acting in a way that is detrimental to the defending team”.
While Romário was sentenced for offering bribes to his colleagues, that is, for actively participating in the criminal network as an instigator, Domingos was convicted of accepting one of those proposals.
The court’s decision met the expectation of Brazil’s Football Federation (CBF) president Ednaldo Rodrigues, who defends that players whose participation in fraud has been “proven” will be banned from discipline forever.
Romário and Domingos were the first footballers to be tried in Brazil for the results manipulation network discovered in recent months, suspected of fraud in at least 13 football matches played since last year, including 8 in the first division.
The Goiás public prosecutor’s office has already filed charges against 16 people, including 7 football players, suspected of collecting bribes of up to $20,000 in exchange for the irregularities.
However, documents leaked by the press reveal that there are fifty players named in the investigations.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
