Abel Ferreira on Prestianni and Vini Jr situation: Society’s problem | OneFootball

Abel Ferreira commented on the alleged racism case involving Gianluca Prestianni and Vinícius Júnior, which occurred during the match between Benfica and Real Madrid at Estádio da Luz. The former player and coach of Sporting chose not to analyze the specific case, preferring instead to address the topic in a broader way.

“I don’t like to make judgments, because I am not a judge nor do I have that competence. I stand for values, I stand for respect, I stand for human dignity, I stand for justice, I stand for education, I stand for solidarity,” he said at a press conference, as quoted by Globoesporte.

The Palmeiras coach considered that the problem goes beyond football. “Unfortunately, we are living in a crisis of societal values. And society is me, it’s you, it’s all of us. It’s not a football problem, it’s a societal problem. We all have to respect each other, we all have to be supportive of one another, to have empathy for one another.”

Referring to the episode from last Tuesday, Abel Ferreira emphasized that he believes “no one is happy with what happened, neither side A nor side B”, reinforcing that public discussion does not always translate into concrete actions. “Unfortunately, we talk a lot, we debate a lot, and we polarize one opinion against the other. We do very little. I am 47 years old and, for me, we are in the worst phase of human values. We are society, we should live as a society.”

Finally, he reiterated that he does not intend to judge the specific case due to lack of information. “I don’t have much information about this specific case. I think it will be judged, I don’t know what happened. I don’t judge, because I don’t have the grounds. We, as a society, are falling short of what we can do,” he concluded.

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