Piccinato on spying claims at Corinthians before Club World Cup final | OneFootball

The Corinthians coach, Lucas Piccinato, spoke about the espionage complaint filed by the club with the International Federation of Football (FIFA) after the last training session of the Brabas before the final of the Champions Cup, played against Arsenal, England. The activity was held at the Barnet FC training center.

In a press conference given after the 3-2 defeat to the English team, the coach responded to a question from UOL about the episode and reported strangeness since arriving at the training site.“It's hard to talk about, as it was a situation where we were placed to train at a training center where Arsenal's women's youth categories also train. From the first moment, we felt a certain strangeness because we were going to face a team and the younger category was training in the same sector”, said Piccinato.

 Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel / Corinthians Agency

According to the alvinegro commander, the technical committee communicated the incident to FIFA officials and requested measures to prevent any type of external observation during the activity. Even so, the club identified the presence of people watching the training.

“We asked the FIFA staff involved to ensure that no one was watching the training, and our staff ended up seeing athletes and some members of the commission watching. It shouldn't happen, there could have been a little more care from FIFA so that we wouldn't have anyone at the training center, so we could be clear that no one would spy or watch”, commented the coach.

Piccinato also mentioned specific situations that increased the Corinthians delegation's concern during the preparation period.

“Yesterday, for example, we practiced penalties, and even if it's a girl from the youth category, or a coach from the youth category, watching a penalty training, taking a picture of where the athlete takes penalties, probably in a dispute we would have a bad situation. It's a strangeness that we had, we filed a process with FIFA. I don't know what happened after that”, he added.

The case was initially reported by the portal Meu Timão. According to reports from members of the Corinthians delegation, people wearing uniforms similar to those of the Arsenal staff and technical committee circulated the Barnet FC facilities during training. The episode reportedly repeated on the eve of the final, when two people in English club attire were seen at a window overlooking the field, watching the activity and taking notes.

On the Arsenal side, coach Renée Slegers also spoke about the situation and stated that the episode was nothing more than an “unfortunate” event related to the presence of youth category athletes at the site.

“I think Corinthians was playing at The Hive (Barnet's headquarters), and there were academy players watching. It was unfortunate”, said the coach.

FIFA informed that it will analyze the data presented by Corinthians and that any updates on the case will be communicated in due course. While the investigation is ongoing, Corinthians is already turning its attention to another decision. Next Saturday (07), the Brabas face Palmeiras in the final of the Women's Super Cup, scheduled for 4 pm (Brasília time), at Arena Barueri.

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.