Amongst the plethora of skills we have collectively, speaking Portuguese ain’t one of them. So we can’t do translation work with the video above.
But we can give you the reason it’s being reported.
That’s Francisco Chagas da Silva. And that bandage on his back is covering up a stab wound. The wound was the result of an attack by local referee Gregorio Edio Francisco Chaves that took place at a soccer match over the weekend in Barriera, Brazil.
And Francisco is actually the lucky one here. Chaves originally attacked Jose Ramos da Silva, Francisco’s brother, during a dispute over a foul. Chaves reportedly stabbed 28-year-old Jose Ramos da Silva in the chest, before stabbing Francisco Chagas da Silva in the back multiple times.
Locals treated Jose Ramos da Silva at the scene, but were unable to save him as his chest wounds proved fatal. The 26-year-old referee is reportedly on the run after the stabbings.
Wow. Just wow. We have a good laugh every time something SASIC-y drops onto our desk, and we’d bet this has been the perverted fantasy of at least one ref at some point, but this is all kinds of sad. And weird.
Just one footnote: We found the story via The Spoiler who credits it to the Spanish paper Marca. But we couldn’t find the story on the Marca ‘futbol’ page and when we Google “Barriera, Brazil” we get a map with a marker in the Coral Sea south of Cairns and north of Mackay. We’re not trying to imply this is some kind of hoax. You can clearly hear the names above in the video report, and you can clearly see the bandage on Francisco da Silva but we’re failing in our attempts to dig up more than what we’ve found so far.
I think the town you want is Barreira, and there’s several of them in different states of Brazil, so I’m not sure which one.
Okay… so that’s one mystery solved. Spoiler had it as “Barriera” but there is a “Barreiras” here in the northeast part of the country.
I’d hate to think the ref really stabbed the guys over some footy. Maybe he was off his meds? Otherwise, there must be something else going on. Soccer in SA is often a smokescreen for all kinds of criminal activity, but I’ve never known the refs to be involved before.
Without knowing what’s being said, I’d have to think there is something else going on here. If the pitch they show is where the incident took place, well, it’s pretty rinky-dink. And it wouldn’t be an incredible stretch from there to think that a) this is a small community and b) the ref knew these two people well and had previous problems with them. I mean, was there a knife handy? Did he have it on him already? And if so was that standard for protection or was it premeditated as he wanted to injure one or both of the brothers?
The town is Barreiras and it’s in the northeastern state of Ceará near the capital city of Fortaleza. This was simply a small town match on a pitch that didn’t even have grass.
Given Davi Paulo’s comment, this probably more likely fits into a “community soccer is crazy” category. These adult leagues can just be out of hand, everywhere in the world. That said, it is South America and it is soccer. You know the old saying about a duck…
I would just like to say…I have never been to Brazil.
I speak Portuguese and lived in Brazil for two years. This was a community match and they get REALLY heated. Refs and players all know each other, so who knows if a previous argument didn’t spill over onto the field. The younger brother is the one being interviewed (the guy with the bandage on his back). He said he stepped on another players foot and got the foul called and then the argument broke out. Again, I’m sure soccer was just the chosen venue for this disagreement and I’m sure it didn’t just start there. Barreiras is a small city near Fortaleza and there are thousands just like it all over Brazil… you definitely can’t attribute this as a common occurance.