MUNICH, April 22 – Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola faces a UEFA rap for wearing a t-shirt dedicated to the memory of an Argentine journalist killed at the World Cup.
The Bayern boss is being investigated for ‘unsportsmanlike behaviour’ for wearing a black t-shirt on Monday bearing the text #JusticiaParaTopo (Justice for Topo) before Munich’s stunning 6-1 thrashing of Porto in their Champions League, second-leg fixture.
Jorge Lopez, nicknamed ‘Topo’, was killed when the taxi he was travelling in was hit by a stolen car being chased by police in a traffic accident while reporting at last year’s World Cup in Brazil.
The family of the 38-year-old has launched the JusticiaParaTopo campaign to get the facts behind his death.
“Last week, the family sent me this t-shirt and when I woke up this morning, I knew that I would wear it,” explained Guardiola in Monday’s pre-match press conference.
But Guardiola’s decision violates UEFA’s rules against “using a sporting event for a non-sporting purpose”.
Porto coach Julian Lopetegui is also being investigated by UEFA after he was sent from the sidelines by English referee Martin Atkinson in the dying minutes of his side’s away defeat in Munich on Tuesday after a heated exchange with match officials.
