Silence and Separation: The Trial Against a Former Full-Back at Boca Juniors

The former full-back ended up being separated from his position

They say it’s the tip of the iceberg. That it depends on how the trial goes so that many other people decide to speak out. Multiple versions are running through Boca at this time, but for the moment there is only one thing certain: today from nine in the morning and before Oral Court 22 chaired by Judge Sergio Paduczak the process for simple sexual abuse against the former will be carried out. technical director of the club’s women’s football, Jorge Martínez. The person who accuses him is Florencia Marcó, an employee of the Press and Diffusion department of the institution, who is currently on leave. And not only the truth will be at stake, but also the position of the institution, because the accused will present seven witnesses to try to discredit the complainant’s version and among them are Alfredo Cascini, Jorge Bermúdez and Marcelo Delgado, the former soccer players who are currently in the Football Council to which they arrived thanks to Juan Román Riquelme. And we will have to see what they maintain in her statements, because Marcó not only stated that she informed them of what had happened, but that she would have a way to prove it. At the time, Boca did nothing to clarify the issue, but it will be seen now, if before the courts, the position is different. Because while an individual case is judged, there are many other things that could explode.

Marcó’s case against Martínez began on March 7, 2023, but the allegedly abusive situation came from before. The former winger assumed his position as coach at the end of 2019, from that moment on he would have had inappropriate attitudes and after the pandemic everything would have become much more exacerbated. And it hatched in October 2022, during a trip to Quito by the delegation prior to the Women’s Copa Libertadores. According to the complaint, the coach and former full-back, who had been hinting at her attitudes all the time, groped her in her private parts. In the period between that event and the formalization in Court, Marcó tried to get the club involved in what was happening, but it did not happen.

“I went to the Gender and Equality department of the institution, where they told me to take leave while they investigated. At the same time, Martínez continued to lead the women’s team as if nothing had happened. Months passed, I never received a response and then I went to my lawyer, Andrea Luncaglioli, and filed the complaint. Only then did Boca decide to remove him from his position,” Florencia tells Infobae. Although Martínez denied everything, for Marcelo Baños, the judge who investigated the case together with prosecutor Eduardo Cubría, the complaint had a lot of support and then he decided to bring it to trial in May of last year for the crime of simple sexual abuse, which He has a sentence of six months to four years in prison. “I am very mobilized because justice is beginning to be done. This is essential to give visibility to the issue and encourage others to speak out, because there were a lot of girls who told me similar things, but are afraid to report it. Well, when Justice does its job well, it allows us all to bring light out of so much darkness,” adds Marcó.

“This is essential to give visibility to the issue and encourage others to speak out, because there were a lot of girls who told me similar things, but they are afraid to report it,” Marcó explained to Infobae.

During the trial, whose prosecutor will be Dr. Marcelo Martínez Burgo, witnesses from both sides will be heard. In the case of Marcó, there will be five of whom, two are former players of the club who in the investigation stage were forceful in supporting the complaint. Strangely, Boca did not institutionally take a clear position on the matter. What’s more, it could be said that it was even elusive. “Boca was and is my home for 11 years and I am sad, hurt, because I thought they were going to take care of me, protect me. With minor women in danger, I thought that they would also be taken care of and that did not happen. “Everything continued as if nothing had happened until I went to court,” says Florencia, who started working at Boca in 2011 and since 2019 was in charge of press and dissemination of women’s soccer.

Unlike the Sebastián Villa case, who will go to trial next month for sexual abuse, in this case the alleged abuses occurred within the club’s facilities or on trips but always as part of official delegations. That is what makes Boca’s silence more unprecedented. That he gave Marcó a paid leave for a few months, but although she is still an employee of the club today, the leave is now without the receipt of salaries. From what Marcó says, it is clear that there was an institutional decision to first try to silence the issue and then, given the spread, to be content with separating the coach without going much deeper into the situation. That is why today the truth will begin to be revealed. About this particular case, but also about what Boca’s position was. When they testify as witnesses, Cascini, Bermudez and Delgado must tell the truth. What some say is the tip of an iceberg that has a lot of dirt underneath.

2024-03-22 06:09:00
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