by Salvatore Riggio
On Monday evening the Cus Cagliari coach Andrea Congiu heavily insulted the Brazilian Sergio Rocha of Villacidrese. The dismissal from the university team arrived on Tuesday
An ugly episode of racism arrives from the world of football, in a 5-a-side version. The coach of Cus Cagliari was sacked for having repeatedly addressed heavy racist insults to an opposing player, the Brazilian Sergio Rocha of Villacidrese, in Tuesday’s match. .
Andrea Congiu, who held the role of coach of the men’s and women’s futsal teams at the University Sports Center of Cagliari, was fired. Relieved of his duties with the Sardinian club which, with a note, wanted to deeply apologize to the player Sergio Rocha and to the management of Villacidrese Calcio for what happened and will evaluate with its lawyers how to protect itself from this unprecedentedly serious behavior on the part of one of its member. Congiu sought a defense by speaking of repeated provocations from the pages of the Unione Sarda: I apologize for the sentence. I was provoked several times by the player and I reacted terribly. However, I can guarantee that racism had nothing to do with it, but it didn’t help to avoid the dismissal.
An episode on which the president of CUS Cagliari and senator of the Democratic Party, Marco Meloni, also took a position: I am terrified, what a terrible thing happened. how much further away from the values that we teach our children every day: respect for others and adversaries, and the values of solidarity, tolerance and inclusion. Racism has no place in society or in sport and must be actively opposed. It doesn’t end here. Because Meloni then added that he had asked the president of Villacidrese, Matteo Marroccu, and the footballer Sergio Rocha for a meeting to personally apologize and to decide together how we can draw inspiration from such a miserable episode to relaunch the values of tolerance, inclusion and to combat any form of racism and discrimination.
After Cus Cagliari’s decision, the victim of this very ugly affair, Sergio Rocha, 39 years old, wanted to express his thanks in a post published on Facebook: At the top of a serious company there are always serious people, and you have demonstrated your seriousness. and your great passion and love for sport. From the beginning we knew that you would condemn this sad episode. Only in this way can we fight racism in all its forms, because those who remain silent are doubly guilty. Chapeau. Then, on Instagram, a story to the tune of Michael Jackson’s song Black or White: If you lose your mind, you never win.
Finally, here is Villacidrese: Any form of discrimination, whether racial or other, cannot and must never be tolerated, much less in sport where the key principles are friendship, solidarity and inclusion”, we read in a company note. And again: We thank the club, the management and the athletes of Cus Cagliari for the closeness shown to Sergio and to all of us. Now Villacidrese Calcio, as specified, reserves the right to adopt all necessary measures to protect its athletes, coaches and managers so that events of this kind are never repeated again.
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March 28, 2024 (modified March 28, 2024 | 10:25)
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