Four players of the River Plate women’s team, arrested for alleged racist insults during a match, were released, announced the Secretariat of the Penitentiary Administration of the State of Sao Paulo.
Judge Fernando Oliveira Camargo liberated Argentine soccer players Candela Díaz, Camila Duarte, Juana Cángaro and Milagros Díaz de Criminal on Friday with the condition that they seem in the Court in Sao Paulo every month until the end of the case.
The names of the four footballers were published on Friday night in a document hanging outside the Carandiru penitentiary center, in Sao Paulo. The Argentine players spent Christmas in prison. Neither their lawyer nor their club revealed on Saturday whether they had returned home.
On December 21, a semifinal of the Brazilian Women’s Cup between the river and the Brazilian Grêmio stopped in the first part after Diaz made a monkey gestures obvious to a ball of ball, who filmed in transmitted photographs. A fight broke out and Grêmio’s players left in protest.
The referee issued red cards to six River players and ended the semifinal because there was no longer the minimum number of players required to continue.
The score was 1-1 but the referee awarded the match to Grêmio, which won the tournament final two days later.
Brazil Ladies Cup prohibited the tournament for two years.
Organizers said future editions will immediately ban any participating team whose athletes or staff “engage in racist gestures on the playing field.”
Gemio coach Thaisan Passos said that his team had told the players in their rivers that in the past had called them “monkeys. “
Argentine players have still made public comments about this case.
River also condemned discriminatory gestures. The club said it was “taking the appropriate disciplinary measures and will continue working to eradicate such behavior.”
Argentine clubs have been frequently sanctioned by South American sports bodies due to racist gestures from their fans, especially in men’s soccer matches involving Brazilian clubs.