SAO PAULO (AP) – Brazilian football team Santos suspended a newly signed contract with star Robinho after a sponsor referred to the player’s sexual assault case and broke ties with the club.
“Santos and Robinho have agreed to suspend the contract signed on October 10 so that the player can focus exclusively on their defense on the Italian court,” the club said in a Twitter post on Friday.
In 2017, the former Manchester City courtman was sentenced by an Italian court to nine years in prison for his involvement in the rape of a 22-year-old woman in a nightclub in 2013. Robinho appealed the resolution and the case continues.
Robinho, 36, began his career at Santos before playing for Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan, among other clubs, this being his third stage with Santos.
Brazil’s Orthopride orthodontic franchise announced this week that it had resceded its sponsorship contract with Santos “out of respect for women” after robinho’s signature was announced.
Richard Magrath, managing director of Orthopride, told Globo Esporte: “We have great respect for Santos’ history. But at this point, we have to terminate the sponsorship contract. “
Ours is predominantly feminine and, out of respect for the women who buy our products, we had to make this decision. We’d like to explain that we hadn’t been informed before Robinho’s signature, we were surprised by this weekend’s news.
Robinho posted a video on Twitter that he retwented on various media websites, saying, “I will reveal my innocence.
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