In an interview with TNT Sports, Braz admitted that the player should not have been there. Even so, he stated that he was not involved in any fight.
The regrettable scenes we saw are not part of football. The waterfront is full of scenes that we hardly believe football deserves. Varela trained normally, carried out all the club’s activities. He went to lunch and went out to meet two friends. That was what Varela told me in a second moment. He was extremely worried about these two friends and drove his car close to his friends. At one point, when he was stopped, the Military Police arrived and asked him to get out of the car. He hadn’t even gotten out of the car. It was in the wrong place, it shouldn’t have been there. But I wasn’t involved in any kind of fraternization or commotion. The PM ordered him to get out of the car and he did the right thing. Marcos Braz
Varela received a call and went to remove two friends from the chaos on the beach. He trained in the morning at Ninho and fulfilled all the club’s commitments. Afterwards, he went to Recreio and returned to CT.
The images show Varela outside the car and this happened on orders from the police. He stopped the vehicle to board his acquaintances and was intercepted asking him to get out of the car. The full-back tried to identify himself as a Flamengo player, but the agents carried out the search anyway. At this moment he was caught in videos circulating on the networks. Afterwards, the Uruguayan was released.
In a statement, Varela reinforces that he did not participate in any act of violence. The player explains that he lost contact with his friends when he arrived at the place, where he stayed for 15 minutes and ended up being searched. He apologized for the misunderstanding.
Peñarol fans transformed Recreio dos Bandeirantes beach, in the West Zone (RJ), into a true war square at post 12. The Uruguayans looted a kiosk, set fire to motorcycles and clashed with bathers and military police armed with stones, tables and chairs.
