Topics: Gremio, Brazil Cup, Racism, Banned
The highest sports tribunal in Brazil decided to ban Gremio after fans racially abused Santos goalkeeper last week.

Last Thursday, Gremio and Santos were playing the first leg of the Brazil Cup’s round of 16 playoffs at the Gremio Arena stadium in Porto Alegre. Santos was winning 2-0 and with just few minutes to go before the final whistle, Gremio fans began racially abusing their rival’s goalkeeper Aranha.

According to Aranha, Gremio fans started to call him “monkey” and other kind of racial abuse, which caused an angry reaction from the goalkeeper.

“They told me ‘smelly monkey’ and then they started to make monkey noises towards me. It’s tough, I never imagined that something like this could happen,” the keeper said.

“I think it is important to register what happened here. Also, I know that not all of the Gremio fans are like that small group who abused me.”

The second leg of the tie was postponed as the disciplinary commission of the superior court of sporting justice (STJD) was analyzing the incident. After carefully investigating what happened they gave their verdict.

“By a unanimous verdict (the decision was taken) to exclude Grêmio from the Brazil Cup and to fine them 50,000 reais (£13,500) and ban from stadiums for 720 days those fans already identified and those that may still be identified,” the court’s statement said.

Watch the incident here.

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