The fall of Pablo Matera – Internet crucifies former Argentinian captain after he is stripped of captaincy
Former Argentinian captain Pablo Matera has suffered a calamitous fall from grace, just weeks after being one of the most revered rugby players on the planet.
The 27-year-old was stripped of the captaincy for Argentina yesterday after historic tweets were found on his social media accounts which were racist and xenophobic.
Rugby Onslaught was the first rugby media outlet to publish the story late last night when the social media posts came to light.
Argentina made a statement early this morning, condemning the players who had racist messages on their social media uncovered.
The statement translates as this.
Although the messages were expressed between 2011 and 2013 and do not represent the integrity as people that the three showed during this time in Los Pumas, from the Argentine Rugby Union we condemn any expression of hatred and consider it unacceptable.
Si bien los mensajes fueron expresados entre 2011 y 2013 y no representan la integridad como personas que los tres mostraron durante este tiempo en Los Pumas, desde la Unión Argentina de Rugby condenamos cualquier expresión de odio y consideramos inaceptable…
— Unión Argentina de Rugby (@unionargentina) December 1, 2020
Guido Petti and Santiago Socino were also stood down from the team after other comments were found on their social media platforms showing historic racism. A sorry state of affairs for the Argentinian captain.
Matera’s stock has fallen incredibly dramatically overnight as his former admirers turn on him for what he did 8 years ago.
“Matera said these things ten years ago” is no defence.
It’s not like it was the 1850s FFS.
It was 2011.
— Paul Williams (@thepaulwilliams) December 1, 2020
Article below includes the translation of Pablo Matera’s alleged tweets. If they are genuine, he should face the biggest ban the sport can hand out. https://t.co/iM01ip81fW
— Alex Shaw (@alexshawsport) December 1, 2020
Pablo Matera’s stock has drastically fallen today. He tweeted some horrendous things. Let’s just remember that these tweets were sent when he was a teenager. People grow up and change as to do their views. I’m not defending him but it is down to him to prove he has changed.
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) December 1, 2020
The offending posts that have resulted in Argentina sacking rugby captain Pablo Matera, who has deleted his Twitter account. Repulsive stuff, so disappointing from a leader pic.twitter.com/jBfXDitd2k
— Jamie Pandaram (@JamiePandaram) December 1, 2020
The 24 hour period sums up a disastrous 24 hours for Argentina who were initially called out for not honouring Diego Maradona with a proper tribute to the footballer.
