Corinthians boss and directors cleared after refereeing protests | OneFootball

On the morning of this Tuesday, during the Judgment Session of the 5th Disciplinary Commission, the STJD (Superior Court of Sports Justice in Football) analyzed the complaint involving the statements of Dorival Júnior (Corinthians coach), Fabinho Soldado (football executive), and Osmar Stabile (president) against the refereeing of the match between Corinthians and Internacional, held on October 1st. The court decided to acquit all the accused.

The case was registered under Process No. 0949/2025, based on article 258, paragraph 2, item II of the Brazilian Code of Sports Justice, which refers to disrespectful gestures or attitudes against referees. The report was conducted by Ramon Rocha Santos, auditor of the STJD. The commission understood that the match report used as the basis for the complaint did not present sufficient elements for punishment.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Ag. Corinthians

In addition to the Corinthians representatives, Alessandro Barcelos, D’Alessandro, Juan Romanazzi, and Jorge Oliveira Filho, president, football director, performance analyst, and legal vice-president of Internacional, respectively, also responded to the same article. They were all acquitted as well.

The defenses of both clubs argued similarly that the referee generalized behaviors and randomly attributed offenses to different individuals in the match report. The parties sought total acquittal or, at the very least, minimal sanction. See below the accounts and justifications of each involved.

The match in question was valid for the 26th round of the 2025 Brazilian Championship, held at Beira-Rio, in Porto Alegre. The main referee was Rodrigo Jose Pereira de Lima, from Pernambuco, with the VAR under the responsibility of Gilberto Rodrigues Castro Júnior, also from Pernambuco. The refereeing decisions generated strong dissatisfaction on both sides.

In the first half, Internacional had a goal by Oscar Romero disallowed for offside by Luis Otávio, which triggered aggressive protests from the club's leaders, including president Alessandro Barcellos, director D’Alessandro, analyst Romanazzi, and vice Jorge Oliveira. According to the match report, they had to be restrained by the police.

In the second half, it was the Corinthians delegation that was outraged. At 54 minutes, the referee awarded a controversial penalty by Cacá on Bruno Henrique, which resulted in the equalizer for Internacional. Dorival Júnior was expelled after strong protests and continued to protest in the mixed zone. Fabinho Soldado confronted the refereeing on the field and again in the stadium corridors, accompanied by the Corinthians president, Osmar Stabile — both also mentioned in the match report.

In the document, Rodrigo states that Dorival allegedly said that the refereeing "should leave there arrested," in addition to describing offensive gestures and insults attributed to the coach and the mentioned leaders.

Corinthians justified that the complaints arose from errors that harmed the team. The lawyer present at the session highlighted that a match report needs to be based on facts, not "guesswork," questioning how all the accused could have uttered the same words and been restrained in the same way. Witnesses also stated that Osmar Stabile was not even in the mixed zone, which would indicate a flaw in the document.

The defense also used a video of Minister Alexandre de Moraes, a Corinthians supporter, stating in an STF session that "we were robbed" in the match against Internacional, reinforcing that the penalty controversy was public knowledge. Another material presented was an analysis by Paulo Caravina, from the profile @soudoapito, which classified the offside call on the Internacional goal in the first half as correct.

Questioned by the court, Dorival declared that the game was "complicated," with outrage from both teams. He acknowledged having overreacted after the penalty, confirming statements like "it's a shame," "farce," "we were harmed," and "congratulations (ironically)," but denied saying that the refereeing should leave arrested. The coach also contested the claim that he needed police intervention to leave the field and stated he did not see Osmar Stabile in the mixed zone.

Fabinho Soldado also testified. The match report accused him of calling the referee "scoundrel" and insisting on protests after the game. He admitted entering the field but to try to control the situation, denying insults. According to his defense and Internacional's, the mixed zone was extremely tumultuous, which would cast doubt on the precise identification of who complained.

The Internacional lawyer argued that the referee did not consider the cultural and linguistic aspects of those involved. According to his defense, the match report did not reflect the way of speaking in the south, which uses "tu" instead of "you," and also translated expressions from Argentinians, complicating the interpretation of what was really said.

President Alessandro Barcellos, accused of insulting the referee, stated that he was included in the complaint without having uttered any offense. He said there was general outrage, but it was not possible to identify who actually insulted the refereeing.

Jorge Oliveira Filho allegedly said "You again harming us, you scoundrel," according to the match report. In the hearing, he confirmed that there were complaints from the club but denied being the author of those words. Juan Romanazzi, accused of calling the referee a "son of a b#@," also denied any swearing, saying he did not even participate in the post-game confusion, meeting the referee only before the second half, when he said nothing.

At the end of the trial, the 5th Disciplinary Commission found the accusations inconsistent and acquitted all the accused from Corinthians and Internacional.

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