Pumas asks Dani Alves for compensation of five million

The University Club, known as the Pumas, did not take long to distance itself from Dani Alves, in provisional prison without bail, accused of raping a woman last December in a Barcelona nightclub.

Hours after his arrest, on January 20, the Mexican entity terminated the soccer player's contract.

Now he went a step further.

Pumas requested five million dollars in compensation from the 39-year-old soccer player for breaking an ethics and behavior clause, according to what was published by the Brazilian portal

.

This condition in the contract, as this newspaper was able to learn, is applied to all the links of all the club's players and penalizes involvement in doping cases, "in any scandal that becomes public" or in "any act that is considered offense under the law of the country where it occurred.

More information

Two friends of the Alves victim declare that the player also approached them for sexual purposes

The first days of January turned into pure chaos for Pumas.

On January 4, the woman reported to the Mossos d'Esquadra that Alves had raped her on December 31 at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona.

A week later, the footballer asked the club for authorization to travel to Barcelona and attend the funeral of his mother-in-law.

The request was granted.

Since then, in the Mexican club everything has been hermetic.

When the Brazilian was arrested by the police after arriving in Barcelona, ​​the Mexican outfit consulted the legal team and they decided that they should immediately terminate the contract with Alves.

"We cannot allow the conduct of a person to harm our work philosophy," said Leopoldo Silva, president of Pumas.

Alves went from being a soccer idyll to a legal nightmare for Pumas.

On July 21, 2022, the university team had shaken the transfer market when it announced the signing of the former Barcelona defender, the footballer with the most titles in history (42).

In Pumas they were not used to hiring players with too much cachet, but rather they bet on training young Mexicans.

The signing of Alves, then, was historic for the club, which tied the Brazilian with a contract of 300,000 euros for one season, a huge salary for the Mexican league.

Alves, however, seemed like the perfect hook for Pumas' sponsors, including international brands such as Nike and DHL.

The team's shirts were sold out days after the signing was announced and the club took advantage of the footballer's image, with 9,

Now, at the Mexican club, Alves is seen as a forbidden name.

He is also one for the brands that bet on the Brazilian.

The link between Adidas and Alves expired in 2022. The German company did not renew the contract.

She was not the only one who broke away from the footballer.

Hygia Saúde (an application related to public health in Brazil) terminated its sponsorship with Alves on January 24, four days after his arrest.

"Our pillar is the valorization of women and we strive so that they are increasingly recognized in society and so that they can have a better and healthier life," he said.

1xBet (betting company) chose to send an email and end the link with the player on January 23, three days after the arrest.

“Scheduled payments will also be postponed,” he reminded her.

And Ethika (underwear) terminated the link on January 25, five days after Alves entered prison.

“We will not make any of the agreed payments for 2023 until Dani is cleared of guilt,” she detailed.

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Dani Alves arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman

The soccer player Dani Alves is detained in a police car after going to make a statement at the Les Corts Police Station, on January 20, 2023, in Barcelona, ​​Catalonia (Spain).

Photo: Europa Press |

Video: EPV

That the contracts have been terminated is one of Alves' arguments for requesting his provisional release.

As reported by

, the footballer's defense assures that the Brazilian does not have "economic muscle" and precisely cites Pumas' decision to terminate his contract.

In the letter he adds that "several companies have terminated the sponsorship, publicity and image contracts" they had signed with the player.

Márquez and drug trafficking

Rafael Márquez, the current coach of Barça Athletic, was listed by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a suspect of having been one of the front men for drug trafficking in 2017. Following this information, the brands on which the Mexican was their ambassador – Gillette and Nike – ended their relationship immediately.

Márquez assured that he had no relationship and, over the months, he was able to play the World Cup.

Of course, the brands that accompanied the Mexican team asked him to train with a kit without logos.

He could not give statements to the press either.

In September 2021, OFAC removed Márquez's name from its list.

Other cases in which brands ended their relationships with athletes involved in crimes or scandals were that of Tiger Woods in 2009, when a sex scandal was publicized that cost him a series of global sponsors and millions of dollars.

In 2018, the Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao lost a contract with Nike, one of his pillars, for assuring that homosexuals "were worse than animals."

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