Milton Neves says he regrets criticism of women’s football and repeats sexist phrase

With two weeks left until the start of the Women’s World Cup, and the Brazilian team led by Sweden’s Pia Sundhage looks like this time they will have the support of someone who has always treated women’s football with disdain.

Journalist and presenter of Grupo Bandeirantes, Milton Neves had the habit of ridiculing the sport wherever there was room to do so: on TV, radio, on social networks. With no mercy. “Women are sublime in everything but football,” he wrote in 2016 on his Twitter account.

Then coached by Vadão (1956-2020), the Brazil of Marta, Andressinha, Formiga and Cristiane had just been defeated by Sweden on penalties, losing the chance to advance to the final of the Rio Olympics. Milton made his joke and classified football “de muié” as “de chip”. Today he says he is ashamed of it.

“I take back what I said. Making a mistake is one thing, insisting on making a mistake is even worse”, he says, remembering that he was cursed a lot at the time. “The people fell on top of me, our lady”. The journalist claims that now, seven years later, he has noticed the good winds that are blowing (financially, including) for the sides of the sport that inspired so many jokes in previous years.

He says he is “very sorry” for ever having played against women’s football. “Finally, TVs are making room for them, and not only for the players, but also for commentators, journalists….”. Milton then laughs, says that there is still a lot to improve, and engages in a sexist comment.

“There are women playing like men,” he says. “But the problem is the goalkeepers, poor things. It’s ridiculous women grabbing”. One solution would be to install a goal of smaller dimensions in the dispute of women’s matches, she proposes, half in jest, half seriously.

But he gets serious, serious, even when he returns to talking about his regret for the offensive comments made to female soccer players during the 2016 Olympics. “My wife [Lenice, morta em 2020] today it’s in heaven and it caught my attention at the time”, he says, his voice cracking. “She was very sad with me. I take back everything she said. All.”