Diego Souza handed one-year ban over fake coaching license
The Santa Catarina sports court unanimously punished the Joinville coach, who was also fined R$20,000; the former player says he was the victim of a scam and can still appeal
Translated from the Portuguese original by the Panorama newsroom. Read in Portuguese
Summary written by the Panorama newsroom from the sources listed below. Facts are attributed to the original publications.
Former player Diego Souza, coach of Joinville, was suspended for 360 days by the 1st Disciplinary Committee of the Santa Catarina Sports Court of Justice (TJD-SC), accused of using a forged document to obtain a coaching license. The hearing took place on Tuesday (3), and the unanimous decision included a fine of R$20,000, Folha de S.Paulo reported.
According to the complaint, the Argentine Football Coaches Association (ATFA) informed the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) that Diego Souza has no academic record of the course listed on his diploma, allegedly issued in December 2023, and pointed to an inconsistency between the date of the document and the signature of the secretary-general. Conmebol also said it found no license in his name. For the court's prosecutors, the evidence points to possible document forgery.
The case is an offshoot of the investigation into the sale of fake coaching licenses involving former Argentine player Alejandro Mancuso. Diego Souza, who cried during the hearing, says he was the victim of a scam: he says he obtained the license through Mancuso and believed the papers were authentic.
Before the ruling, the CBF had already canceled his professional registration, and the TJD-SC had suspended him preventively for 30 days, during which he was barred from stadiums.
Joinville, which announced the coach in August, said he will continue in the club's day-to-day work while assistant Raphael Bahia leads the team. The decision can be appealed to the full TJD-SC, and the case may still reach the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD).