Tottenham Hotspur have requested a formal ban involving ESPN Brazil correspondent Joao Castelo-Branco after an incident in Sao Paulo. The dispute concerns footage of him joining Arsenal supporters in chants directed at Tottenham, with the club seeking to prevent him from covering it in the future.
What the video showed
The social media video showed Castelo-Branco wearing an Arsenal shirt and joining Gunners supporters in Sao Paulo to sing anti-Tottenham songs.
The footage showed him participating in the “We hate Tottenham” chant, which refers to Tottenham as “s***”. The video was initially shared via the Correspondentes Premier podcast, which has an audience of over 42,000 on Instagram. Castelo-Branco has 168,000 followers on Instagram and a further 188,000 on X.
Tottenham's request
According to Tottenham Hotspur, the club lodged a complaint with the Premier League after footage showed Castelo-Branco participating in derogatory chants alongside rival supporters.
The Times reported that Tottenham contacted the Premier League to demand that Castelo-Branco be prevented from covering the club in the future. Tottenham are not seeking a blanket ban on the broadcaster itself, and discussions remain ongoing to resolve the dispute.
Castelo-Branco's response
Castelo-Branco has removed the footage from his channels and expressed deep regret. He said: “I wanted to apologise to the club for the video I recorded with Arsenal fans in Brazil singing a derogatory chant about Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.”
He also said: “Given my role as a correspondent in the UK I feel I made a mistake. The video was posted on the podcast Instagram page and reproduced on my personal page.”
Castelo-Branco said: “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.”
His reporting remit and the result
Castelo-Branco is not a dedicated Tottenham correspondent, but his broader remit covering English football means he frequently attends Premier League fixtures.
Tottenham lost 1-0 to Leeds United on Saturday at Elland Road. Noah Okafor scored the match-winning goal from the bench in Tottenham's defeat to Leeds United.
