Tottenham Hotspur have lodged a formal complaint to the Premier League about the actions of Joao Castelo-Branco, an English football correspondent for ESPN Brasil, after he was filmed joining Arsenal fans in anti-Spurs chanting.
The video, shared on Castelo-Branco's personal Instagram page and an account belonging to an ESPN podcast, showed him taking part in the chants with Arsenal supporters in Sao Paulo. Tottenham have now filed an official complaint against the journalist.
Premier League action requested
As part of the complaint, Spurs have asked the Premier League to prevent Castelo-Branco from covering the club in future, including attending matches, press conferences and potential interviews. The exclusions would not affect any other reporter or the broadcaster itself, with ESPN holding Premier League rights in the Caribbean and South America.
Castelo-Branco apologised for his actions in an interview with The Times and confirmed the videos had been removed from both social media accounts.
Reporter's apology
"I wanted to apologise to the club for the video I recorded with Arsenal fans in Brazil singing a derogatory chant about Tottenham Hotspur," Castelo-Branco said. "Given my role as a correspondent in the UK, I feel I made a mistake."
He added: "The video was posted on the podcast Instagram page and reproduced on my personal page. I understand it can be offensive to Spurs and Spurs fans and I should have thought more about singing that and the reach it could have."
"ESPN was notified by the Premier League about Tottenham seeing and disliking the post, and we agreed to delete it. Hopefully we can move on, and I will rethink and be more careful with the boundaries of having that persona on the podcast," he said.
