Palmeiras: TJ-SP rejects Dudu appeal in insult, defamation case | OneFootball

The legal dispute between Dudu, former Palmeiras player, and Leila Pereira, the club’s current president, has entered a new chapter after a series of statements from both sides regarding the player’s departure from Verdão.

Criminal complaint filed by Dudu

The former Alviverde No. 7 had filed, in August 2025, a criminal complaint against the Palmeiras president over statements made in recent months.

Statement 1 – January 13, 2025

– Dudu, in the middle of last year, after suffering that serious injury, was out for almost nine months, being treated the way we treat all of our players… he approached Cruzeiro, wanting to transfer there. I authorized it. Dudu was sold in the middle of the year, it just wasn’t made official. It’s a completely different situation. We were very clear with Rony, but if he prefers to stay at Palmeiras, he is a club player and will remain in the squad working. Rony would leave through the front door. Dudu left through the back door. – said Leila Pereira

Statement 2 – January 17, 2025

– I have never seen a player or former player address a male president the way he addressed me. Let this be a message to him and to anyone else. He could not do that to anyone. I know how to hit back very hard too, but in a civilized way. Let this serve as an example for other women. If it were a man, he would not have had the courage to do this, as nothing like this has ever happened in the history of Brazilian football – said Leila Pereira

Statement 3 – May 9, 2025

– I do not usually talk about players who are not with Palmeiras. This issue regarding that player [Dudu] is with my lawyers. You know that I have filed a lawsuit over the insults he made against me. I will not talk about this player. I only hope that the courts look very carefully and attentively at this problem I suffered, and that we women suffer daily, these offenses and humiliations. I have absolutely no doubt that everything this player did was because I am a woman. He did not do this, with statements, to male presidents, only to me – said Leila Pereira

Dudu’s allegations

Dudu claims that the “offenses perpetrated” by Leila Pereira “aim to attack the player’s honor, in order to damage his reputation and compromise his image, both of which were worthily built alongside his career in sport,” thus constituting crimes against honor.

In the petition, through his lawyers, the Atlético-MG forward alleges that, in her statements, Leila Pereira committed nine distinct criminal offenses, namely two counts of defamation and seven counts of insult.

Appeal denied

Last Thursday (16), the São Paulo Court of Justice denied, on appeal, the motion filed by Dudu in the criminal complaint against Leila Pereira. In the ruling, rapporteur André Carvalho e Silva de Almeida states that the Palmeiras president’s remarks were intended to “institutionally defend the entity she represents.”

– In the present case, it appears that the defendant made the statements on 1/13/2025 in her capacity as president of Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras, in a context in which she was explaining the financial losses that, in her view, the complainant caused the club, and nothing in those remarks specifically aimed to denigrate the complainant’s image can be inferred from them, but only the intention to institutionally defend the entity she represents.

– The statements made by the defendant on 1/17/2025 and on 5/9/2025 also do not reveal any attack on the complainant’s objective or subjective honor; on the contrary, the content of those statements makes it clear that, although the defendant said she felt affected by the complainant’s behavior because she is a woman, she pointed out that the matter would be resolved in court, through the proper legal channels, further demonstrating the care taken with the words chosen, which is incompatible with the animus diffamandi vel injuriandi that characterizes the offenses attributed to her

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