Yesterday, UEFA decided to charge Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola for wearing a particular T-shirt during a press conference.
It contained a message #JusticiaParaTopo, in an apparent bid to back calls to investigate the death of an Argentinian football journalist during last year's World Cup in Brazil.
Football writer and author Marcela Mora y Araujo joined Off The Ball on the line to give us a bit more background about the case and why Guardiola might have felt moved to raise awareness.
"I think the thing that has come to be forgotten, because it's been 10 months since Jorge 'El Topo' Lopez lost his life in Sao Paulo on the eve of the Argentina v Holland game," she said.
"What a difficult situation this accident posed - and I say 'accident' fully aware that what essentially happened was leaving a hotel in Sao Paulo to go to another hotel when the taxi he was travelling in was hit by a stolen car driven by a couple of underage teenagers who were escaping from the police. The next morning his partner and mother of two children, Veronica Brunati, received a tweet from (Atletico Madrid manager) Diego Simeone saying 'very sad to hear the news about Topo's death' and she immediately said 'what are you talking about?'"
#JusticiaParaTopo means: Justice for Topo, my husband was killed in Brazil Word Cup by 3 criminals and the police pic.twitter.com/VSTtosRQjd
— veronica brunati (@verobrunati) April 20, 2015
Mora y Araujo explained that the Twitter exchange between Simeone and Brunati (a sports journalist in her own right) went viral and that Lopez's wife's campaign is to change the ruling of accidental death to homicide and Brazilian police corruption surrounding her husband's death.
"What I heard Veronica saying on radio in Argentina since Guardiola's decision to wear this T-shirt is how grateful she is and how she had sent the T-shirt via people they had in common, not knowing he was going to put it on and she fully expected him to know that he would be fined," said Mora y Araujo.
Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano are among footballers who posted pictures with the campaign's hashtag.
Trending topic in #Argentina ~ #JusticiaParaTopo cc @verobrunati pic.twitter.com/Pjh8KRRnbX
— Ceci Albiceleste (@CeciAlbiceleste) April 20, 2015
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