Murder Is A-Okay In Colombia

It’s often said players today get away with too much, that the modern player is simply allowed too many freedoms, both on and off the pitch. That’s probably fair in perspective of the sport; it’s definitely a fair assessment of the judicial system in Colombia.

On July 5th, 2009 Javier Florez, midfielder for Junior Barranquilla, shot a fan numerous times, killing him while drunk for heckling.
Yesterday, he played his first game back for the club.

For good taste, we’re probably going to have to remove ‘that decision was criminal!’ from the book of refereeing critiques.

This is neither the first nor last time you’ll hear a criticism of the Colombian judicial system or culture of violence in the country: it’s simply the most lethal place on earth with the highest murder rate per capita. (Followed in second by…oh would you look at that: South Africa.)

It was thought Javier would do 20-40 years for murder. “Mysteriously”, the case switched jurisdictions before sentencing and instead of aggravated murder, it was downgraded to manslaughter. I’m no legal expert, but I’m fairly sure going home to find a gun, returning to the victim’s home and pumping rounds into their torso is a bit of a stretch for ‘manslaughter’. And so the end, Javier got three years probation – not quite 20-40 years of government issued toiletries and dodging ‘Bubba’ in the showers.

But he did have to pay the victim’s family 150 million pesos, which is good until you take out your trusty abacus and realize all those wheelbarrows of pesos translate to roughly €55,000. That’s almost a half hour of quasi-caring football from Robinho.

Thursday, Javier made his controversial return to professional footballing in the Copa Colombia. Javier’s thoughts via the now very unfun Google Translate:

“I was concentrating on my work, doing my thing, and I felt quite calm, and felt no public pressure,” he told the media when manager Alex Escobar left the pitch in the 80th minute. Some people came over and shook his hand.

Flórez knows that the path will be difficult, with the rejection of some, and before the game had said: “I am aware of that (the risk of rejection), that any time there will be insults, but I have to devote to mine” .

No pressure? The man must have the ice cold demeanor of an assa…nevermind.

That he was let off with three years probation is nothing short of scandalous – legit scandalous, not European refereeing scandalous. That he’s being allowed onto the pitch by his own club beggars belief. Or maybe it all just sounds very Colombian. So lesson learned: if you’re a professional footballer with homicidal visions, force a move to Colombia.

ESPN produced a 7+ minute mini-doc on the affair. Worth a watch if only to hear just which words caused such anger they deemed murder perfectly justifiable – ’sticks & stones’ apparently is not universal.

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Category: South America, World Football