Photographer forces football club into u-turn over ban targeting her outfits
A female football photographer has forced a club to back down from their attempt to ban her outfits, which they deemed were not in line with the 'club's institutional image'.
Sportivo Ameliano, a first-division Paraguayan football club made a major change to the dress code for reporters and photographers who turn up on-site to cover its matches.
Just before its planned game against Olimpiana on 25 October, the club banned leggings that are not black or dark blue, 'low-cut blouses' and any 'exposure of the navel' in its new guidance.
But photographer Adriana Caballero, 29, claimed the timing of the ban came eerily close to when an image of her at work went viral.
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In retaliation, she has since been able to have the dress code reversed, with even the club's president calling its rules 'madness'.
According to local outlet Diario Jordana, the dress code was released by the institution's Press Department through what appears to be an AI generated image.
In it, it appeared to show what a person wearing appropriate clothing at the Ameliano stadium would look like.
The text asked people to attend the location wearing an 'elegant sport' style to maintain a 'professional, respectful and in accordance with the institutional image of the club.'
Caballero said, per the Daily Mail: "I always want to wear the most comfortable clothes possible for my job. Sooner or later it probably had to come to this."
After raising the issue as potentially being a problem for her and her colleagues and their ability to work, Sportivo Ameliano did a u-turn and the club's president, Héctor Melgarejo, claimed the dress code had been published without approval from the club's management.
In a conversation with the program Fútbol a lo Grande on AM1080, the president said: "I deeply regret that this has happened. It did not leave the club, it was not institutional, but it was something that came out of the person in charge of the press without any authorization from the club."
"We are going to issue a statement institutionally where we are going to clarify that it is not what the club reflects as an institution. It was something that was done on its own initiative, but I don't know, I don't know the reason why it was done either, right? I have not yet finished the meeting here for him to explain that to me," Melgarejo added.
The host of the program asked: "The issue is clothes, how to go to the field. It's women and men, right?"
He then replied: "No, a stupid thing. Everyone can go as they want. In the end it's the job and that's it, right?"
Describing it as 'madness' during an interview with RDN's Cardinal Deportivo program, the president said of the guidance image: "I went through a discomfort. It's crazy. They published without authorization. It is not what we proclaim at the Sportivo Ameliano. I apologize."
Topics: Football, Sport, World News
Britt Jones