Tottenham are said to be furious after a video surfaced of an ESPN Brazil journalist singing anti-Spurs chants alongside Arsenal fans.
Joao Castelo-Branco, an Arsenal supporter who works as a football correspondent for ESPN Brazil, was filmed in Sao Paulo celebrating Arsenal’s 1-0 win over their north London rivals. Dressed in an Arsenal shirt, he joined in several songs aimed at Tottenham, including the well-known “We Hate Tottenham” chant, which contains abusive language about the club. The clip spread quickly and reached Spurs’ hierarchy, who raised their concerns with the Premier League. Talks between Tottenham and ESPN Brazil are now reportedly under way, though the club have no plans to ban the broadcaster outright. Their anger is aimed at the journalist himself and how he behaved while representing a major international outlet.
The Times reports that Spurs lodged a formal complaint with the Premier League. They reportedly asked for Castelo-Branco to be barred from covering the club in any professional capacity, including media duties, interviews with head coach Roberto De Zerbi and conversations with first-team players. Tottenham are believed to feel his involvement in the chants casts doubt on the neutrality expected of someone reporting on them. He doesn’t cover Spurs exclusively, but he regularly reports on English football and attends many Premier League matches, which makes the matter especially delicate given his contact with several clubs.
After the backlash, Castelo-Branco reportedly deleted the footage from his social media accounts and moved to apologise. He emailed the club and joined an online meeting with the Premier League and his employers. Speaking to The Times, he admitted his behaviour was wrong and that he should have considered the consequences. He said that, given his role as a correspondent in the UK, he felt he had made a mistake, and explained that the video was first posted on the podcast’s Instagram page before being shared on his own. He added that he understood why Spurs fans could find it offensive, accepted he should have thought harder about the reach of such a chant, and said ESPN had agreed to take the post down once the Premier League flagged Tottenham’s displeasure. He hopes to move on and be more careful about the boundaries of the persona he adopts on the podcast.
The story is still drawing attention because of his sizeable following in Brazilian football media. He has over 168,000 followers on Instagram and around 188,000 on X, and he is linked to ESPN Brazil’s Correspondentes Premier podcast, which has roughly 42,100 Instagram followers.
The row comes at an awkward time for Tottenham on the pitch. After three straight wins, De Zerbi’s side saw their unbeaten run end with a 1-0 defeat at Leeds United’s Elland Road on Saturday lunchtime. Noah Okafor came off the bench to score the winner, and Spurs found no response. The loss halts the momentum De Zerbi had been building and leaves him with the job of getting his players back on track, while the Castelo-Branco saga adds another unwelcome off-field distraction, with the question of his future access to the club likely to remain sensitive.
