Argentine rugby trio suspended for racist tweets, then reinstated
Just two days after three players from Argentina’s national rugby team were suspended for antisemitic and other racist tweets posted a decade ago, they have been reinstated.
The offensive messages, directed at Jews, Black people and immigrants from other South American countries, were made in 2011 and 2012 by team captain Pablo Matera, Guido Petti and Santiago Socino.
The tweets came to light last week, after which all three players were suspended. But two days later they were reinstated .
In one of the messages, Mr Socino named a soccer team from the Jewish neighbourhood of Villa Crespo, and using a slang expression that references killing Jews to make soap, he wrote: “What a mess could be in Villa Crespo if Hitler were alive [sic].” In another tweet, Mr Socino mocked circumcision and made reference to the stereotype of Jews being mean.
Mr Matera spoke of “running over Blacks” with his car and was offensive about Bolivians and Paraguayans.
After the offensive tweets became public, the Argentina Rugby Union opened disciplinary proceedings and said: “The Argentina Rugby Union condemns any instance of hate speech and considers it unacceptable that anyone expressing those views would represent our country.” Mr Matera was also stripped of the captaincy.
Two days later, however, following pressure from other members of the national team and other Argentine rugby clubs, the Argentina Rugby Union reinstated the players, who were allowed to play in the match against Australia on 5th December.
Following a meeting of the Rugby body and the Jewish community, the union’s website said that a Jewish organisation had offered to assist with education “to raise awareness” around discrimination and prejudice.
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