The ordeal of reporting sexual abuse in Argentine football: “They neglected me and took care of the abuser”

Argentine football moves between light and darkness, even on the same day.

The men's team, converted into a ministry of national happiness after having won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, will face El Salvador this Friday night in a friendly match that, although without the presence of the injured Lionel Messi, will attract the interest of the fans and the media agenda.

But a few hours before, on the morning of the same Friday, Justice will begin to intervene in Buenos Aires on a much more thorny issue that is also going through the environment: the oral trial will be held for the complaint of simple sexual abuse that Florencia Marco, head of press of the Boca Juniors women's team, presented to Jorge Daniel Martínez, the coach of the club's First Division - also for women - between January 2022 and April 2023.

The hearing will take place in a context of multiplication of complaints against soccer players and other male actors in Argentine soccer: this Monday, four Vélez Sarsfield players were detained in Tucumán, 1,200 kilometers north of Buenos Aires, after having been denounced by a local journalist of sexual abuse with carnal access.

Pending the trial, the Buenos Aires club has already terminated their contract.

The next day, Tuesday, two players from another First Division team, Godoy Cruz de Mendoza – although in this case from the Reserve squad, the category prior to professionalism – were also arrested for abusing a young woman.

The Marco-Martínez case in Boca, until now little visible, could have an immediate impact: around the journalist they hope that the testimonial statements and allegations will begin and end this Friday and that even Judge Sergio Padusack will issue his sentence at the end of the day.

The crime of simple sexual abuse provides penalties of four months to six years in prison.

Before becoming a coach, Martínez had an extensive career as a footballer: between 1993 and 2010 he was a defender for Boca, River and Independiente, among other teams, and in 1997 he played three games for the Argentine national team.

Marco went to court in March 2023 after the indifference with which Boca treated his accusation, made in the first instance before the club's Inclusion and Gender department, chaired by Adriana Bravo, also third vice president of the institution.

The complainant had warned the Boca authorities in February that during 2022 she had been harassed, abused and groped by Martínez, but the club asked her to take a leave of absence and let the coach continue in his duties as head of the women's team. .

When more than a month passed and the situation did not change, the journalist filed her complaint in court.

Only then did Boca release Martínez.

“They neglected and unprotected me, and they protected and cared for the abuser.

Bravo was there every day and he saw what was happening, that is the part that hurts me the most.

The person who had to take care of the victims exposed them and put them in danger, and on top of that there were minors.

I have the usual phone number and, once I filed the complaint, they never called me.

And when the complaint was not formally filed, they did not answer my calls either,” Marco laments.

In contradiction to this institutional insensitivity, Boca is the greatest champion of women's soccer in Argentina, with 28 titles in its history - the last four consecutively - against 11 for its closest pursuer, River.

The Gladiators, as the Xeneize women's team is nicknamed, are also the only team in the country made up solely of professional players, while the rest of the teams alternate amateur soccer players.

Even in the midst of general growth, many First Division matches are still played in stadiums without stands.

Paradoxically, Marco's complaint to Justice reached the media only one day after a Boca-River in the Bombonera before 12,500 spectators, on April 2, 2023.

Marco prepared for this Friday between a long pilgrimage through the Courts, the sudden distance from football, numerous sessions with his psychologist and greater contact with nature.

“At times I feel joy, because it is the moment I was waiting for, to put an end to this ordeal, but, on the other hand, it gives me anxiety knowing that I am going to find myself in the same physical space with the abuser.

This trial is against Martínez, but the sexual abuse was within the institution,” says Marco, who says he has endured harassment from the Boca female coach for a year.

“I made the

click

when I was able to become aware of what I had experienced during 2022, which was the year of the abuse.

In January 2023 I took a vacation and began to put together what had happened to me so I could express it.

It was one championship after another, a Copa Libertadores in Ecuador in which I spent 20 days living with him (Martínez) on the same floor of the hotel, which was total hell.

I couldn't come to work at the club crying and leave crying.

I couldn't be walking down the hallway afraid of anything happening to me.

It was necessary to make a cut and the only way I found was to make it public because, by doing it privately, it was not heard,” adds Marco, who worked at Boca for 12 years – in truth he is still in a dependency relationship with the club although on leave. without pay, which adds economic difficulty to their experience of anguish.

Marco also affirms that Martínez's abuses were common within the club and in each transfer of the team, and not only about her: “After making the complaint I felt calm, I saw a little light again in the midst of so much darkness.

I felt very alone before, even though I knew that she was not the only victim of this abuser.

Except for the leaders, everyone in Boca contacted me and that was a great show of love.

People I didn't know also communicated on social media to thank me for speaking out and for putting this topic on the agenda.

Many people are going through abuse but not many can put it into words.

Taking the complaint to court was the only way to stop this ordeal that the team was experiencing.”

In addition to the cases known in recent days, Argentine soccer has an increasingly long history of players convicted or reported for sexual abuse.

Precisely a Boca forward, the Colombian Sebastián Villa - currently in Bulgaria - was sentenced last year to two years and one month in prison - suspended - for gender violence against Daniela Cortes, his ex-partner.

In addition, two regular footballers of the national team, Thiago Almada and Gonzalo Montiel, face complaints in court for sexual violence in different incidents.

Almada, a former Vélez forward and currently at Atlanta United in the United States, is being investigated for an alleged double aggravated abuse that occurred in 2020, while Montiel, now a defender for Nottingham Forest in England and a former River player, was charged last year with the alleged crime of sexual abuse with carnal access, aggravated by the participation of two people.

Both cases remain open.

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