Brazilian journalist Renato Senise was recently interviewed by Futeboteco TV, and had very interesting stories about his work in England.
The reporter has been a Premier League correspondent for Brazilian channels for years, and back at his time working at ESPN, he lived a curious episode at Tottenham Hotspur.
Back in 2018, when the South American country was in a very tense moment due to the presidential elections, Lucas Moura showed his support for candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who was a quite controversial figure.
Senise revealed there was an interview where the former Tottenham player had a lot to say about his choice and all the reactions to it.
The problem is that once Spurs learned he said, they made sure to block that part of the conversation, and took strong attitudes to guarantee those quotes wouldn’t go on air.
Senise said: “There was an interview I did with him on ESPN. This 10-minute interview and at the time there was the election, and he had just posted on Twitter that he supported Bolsonaro, and there was that discussion. And I know that I couldn’t even imagine talking about politics because Tottenham would block it. But I asked him: ‘Lucas, you are very active on social media. Do you think that a player who has representation like you, is it important for you to express your opinion?’
“Man, he was clearly very keen to talk about the subject. He said: ‘I think we have to talk, and it’s worse that when we don’t talk, we are criticized, and when we talk, people don’t understand. I have the right to vote for whoever I want, I’ve never disrespected anyone’… anyway, he gave a huge answer that lasted about four minutes.
“When I’m at the end of the corridor, I hear the PR person saying: ‘Senise! What did you ask Lucas about politics?’ Then I said: ‘I didn’t ask anything about politics, I asked about social media and he started talking’. Then he said: ‘But I saw he said the name of the president of Brazil. You know you’re not going to use any of that. You can’t use any of that. We’re here to talk about football’. Then I said: ‘But it was him who spoke, and he clearly wanted to talk. What’s the problem?’ He said: ‘No, I’m not even going to continue the discussion here with you. You’re not going to use it, okay?’
“I came home, I think the next morning, the people from ESPN called me and asked: ‘What happened in Lucas’ interview yesterday?’ They said: ‘We received a formal complaint. Tottenham PR spoke and complained to the Premier League and asked them to ensure that this section is not used’.”
Football players indeed avoid talking about politics, and people often think it’s their staff who block them from taking such positions, so it’s interesting to know that Tottenham and other Premier League sides are so worried about this kind of statement.
In the same interview, Senise claimed that type of behaviour is completely normal among the clubs.
