SESC Players And Staff Comment On The Arrest Of Team’s President

  0 Liam Smith | March 01st, 2018 | Brazilian League, Brazilian Volleyball, International Volleyball, News, Pro Indoor, South American Volleyball

2017-2018 BRAZILIAN WOMEN’S SUPERLIGA

Bernardinho‘s Sesc team is by far the most successful team in Brazilian volleyball. It has won 12 Superliga titles, including the last 5. It is understandable, then, that most of it fans were terrified when the team’s president, Orlando Diniz, was arrested by the Brazilian police on corruption charges. The arrest brought around a lot of pessimism regarding the team’s future. But recently, the team itself commented on its status with optimism, as with the arrest of Diniz, Sesc‘s new president, Luiz Gastão, has expressed intention of continuing with the project, which made the team’s general manager, Harry Bollmann very confident:

“We’re already working on renewing the project for net next season. The new board has met the team and is already talking about the continuity of the project for both the men’s and women’s teams. We know it’s annoying, but we’re pretty confident.”

When interviewed by globo.com, Sesc‘s star players, all present or past national teamers, were fast to state that they don’t mix volleyball with politics:

“We do not get involved in politics. We have a contract to be fulfilled, which the new president has made it clear that he will honor. We do not know what happened, we do not like to see arrests like that. We do not want any kind of problems. We do not have much contact with the president anyway. We are paid to play volleyball. Everyone’s contract ends in May, only then it’s time to think about the future.” – Fabiana Alvim

“This has not gotten to us. Our supervisors and coaching staff have made people quite easygoing. Our focus is to play and to train.” – Gabriela Guimarães

“It’s a complicated thing for me to position myself about. I follow the news, but I prefer to distance myself from it. There was no conversation between the players about it. Bernardinho does not let these problems come to us. He protects us and works hard on the court.”Drussyla Costa

If Sesc is indeed to end, it would be perhaps the biggest blow for Superliga in the competition’s history.

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