The Brazilian team at this World Cup was associated with the beautiful things – dancing, beautiful soccer, bright goals, temperamental fans. Many neutral fans must have begun to support the celesão. But now the number of people who want Tite and Neymar’s team to win the 2022 World Cup is likely to diminish. The Brazilians are embroiled in a scandal on a level playing field. It was not one of the players or managerial staff who instigated it, but national team press officer Vinicius Rodriguez.
The incident happened during a press conference of Brazilian national team and Real Madrid winger Vinicius Júnior before the quarterfinal against Croatia. On the table, where the two Vinicius were sitting, a cat suddenly climbed up. The press officer petted the animal and then grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and threw it onto the floor. Though he could have easily put it on the ground. It looked pretty rough, as if Rodriguez was throwing a garbage bag into a bucket.
Journalists and other participants in the press conference were clearly shocked by this behavior of the Brazilian national team press attache. Someone exclaimed, someone said something. Rodriguez just threw up his hands – by his expression you could think he did not understand why the crowd had such a reaction. Vinicius Júnior was puzzled by what he saw, and then he looked at the press officer and laughed out loud. The press conference continued and the cat was immediately forgotten.
However, the video hit the media and social networks and caused an extremely negative response from the public.
They criticize both Vinicius Rodriguez for his behavior and Vinicius Júnior for his laughter, and someone predicted an early departure for the Brazilian national team.
The Brazilians will have their match against Croatia very soon, to make watching the match more interesting, we advise you to turn to online sports betting.
This is not the first time in 2022 that there has been a scandal in soccer over the mistreatment of cats. In February, West Ham player Kurt Zouma was caught in a similar story, except there was more aggression in his actions. Zuma was charged with animal rights violations, banned from having cats for the next five years and sentenced to 12 months of community service. In addition, West Ham United fined the player £250 thousand and Didier Deschamps was so outraged by his behavior that he stopped considering him as a candidate for the French national team before the 2022 World Cup.
