Melisa Miozzi, soccer player for Cadetes de San Martín, a team from the Mar del Plata League, reported verbal violence during a Challenger Cup match, in which her team faced San José.
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According to what the soccer player reported, during the match the referee would have told her "learn to play, the con... of your mother."
After this situation, which according to Miozzi's colleagues and rivals was not an isolated event, the players from both teams decided to leave the match as a sign of protest.
“During the match I received totally out of place comments from the referee,” Miozzi wrote in an Instagram story hours after the match and added: “It was not just an isolated phrase, but a series of sayings that generated a very uncomfortable situation and that do not correspond from any point of view.”
Melisa Miozzi's release on social networks. (Photo: @melisamiozzi)
In her story, the player also pointed out: “At the time I reacted from the anger, because I am human and because there are things that cannot be let go.”
Finally, he thanked the support received and left a strong message. “I want to heartily thank all the people who showed solidarity,” she said and closed: “It is not about a particular person, but about something bigger: that within women's football there is respect and that these situations are never repeated again.”
For his part, the referee involved denied what happened and so far it has not been officially reported whether there will be sanctions or disciplinary measures in relation to the episode that generated repercussions on and off the field.
The support of the soccer player Milagros Menéndez
The former forward of the Argentine National Team, Banfield's reference and friend of Melisa, Milagros Menéndez, expressed strong support for the Cadetes soccer player on her social networks. "Referees who are not qualified to direct," he wrote and added: "Incredible that this continues to happen. My solidarity with Melisa Miozzi."
In that sense, other players also left their comments and claimed to have gone through similar situations. "Without words. How many Sundays we spend like this," Miriam Sain published and Iara Salas joined in: "And we players have to stay silent just because they have more authority on the court and they threaten to throw us out for making any claim."
The release of Club San José, rival of Cadets
The San José Club, Cadetes' rival in the match that was suspended, published a statement on social networks in which it expressed its solidarity with Miozzi and repudiated what happened.
"Club San José stands in solidarity with the Cadetes de San Martín Club squad, especially with the player who was verbally scolded by the referee of the Challenger Tournament match, Melisa "Kun" Miozzi," they wrote and added: "Likewise, Club San José repudiates any act of discrimination or violence, whether physical or verbal, on or off the playing field."
