Rough justice as T-shirt gets Pep in trouble
PEP GUARDIOLA has been charged by UEFA for wearing a T- shirt demanding justice for journalist Jorge Lopez, who died at last summer’s World Cup.
The Bayern Munich coach wore the top — which read ‘#JusticiaParaTopo’ — during a press conference before Bayern dumped Porto out of the Champions League. The message supports a campaign to investigate the death of Argentine Lopez, who was killed in Sao Paulo when a taxi he was travelling in was hit by a stolen car being chased by police.
UEFA revealed Guardiola had been disciplined because of an ‘incident of a non-sporting nature’ in a move certain to cause public outcry. They are to review the case on May 21.
Guardiola said: ‘ Last week, the family has given me the T-shirt. I woke up this morning and knew that I would put it on.’
Lopez’s death shocked the football world, with Atletico Madrid manager and former Argentina midfielder Diego Simeone tweeting that Lopez was ‘ not only a great journalist’ but ‘also a friend’. Lionel Messi dedicated Argentina’s World Cup semi-final win over Holland to the 38-year-old. ‘Big hug to all the Argentina fans and a very special memory for Jorge “Topo” Lopez,’ said Messi. ‘This victory is especially for you, my friend.’
Javier Mascherano also devoted the launch of his book to Lopez while he and Messi, plus legend Diego Maradona, posed with a ‘Justicia Para Topo’ placard.
Meanwhile, FIFA’s former head of security Chris Eaton has called on football’s world governing body to reopen an investigation into allega- tions of vote-buying in 2022 World Cup bidding. A new book published today, The Ugly Game, alleges Qatar’s Mohamed Bin Hammam was at the heart of a plan to ‘buy’ the World Cup using millions of dollars of bribes and trade deals linked to votes.
FIFA have cleared Qatar of wrongdoing and the call by Eaton is all the more extraordinary because he now works for a Qatari organisation, the International Centre for Sport Security. He said: ‘If there is new evidence, whatever it shows, then FIFA needs to investigate it.’
The book by reporters Jonathan Calvert and Heidi Blake is subtitled The Qatari plot to buy the World
Cup and also alleges that FIFA’s now departed anti- corruption investigator, Michael Garcia, passed up the chance to review vital evidence putting Bin Hammam at the centre of a Qatari bung plot. Garcia has not responded to
Sportsmail’s questions but a FIFA spokeswoman said: ‘FIFA cannot comment on hypothetical scenarios or unsubstantiated allegations.’