The President of Sporting says that “people are not used to natural errors in favor of Sporting” and takes aim at their rivals, stating that “for decades, arbitration had an owner: FC Porto and Benfica”.
Sporting’s president, Frederico Varandas, stated on Tuesday that the in the round of 16 of the Portuguese Football Cup, on Thursday, was an error by the referee, who considers this Wednesday “independent”.
Speaking to journalists after (4-1), in a game relating to the 15th round of the I League, played on Wednesday, the director considered that the foul on Hjulmand that led to the penalty converted by Suárez, which allowed the ‘lions’ to make it 2-2 in the 90+16 minutes and win in extra time (3-2), did not exist.
“The penalty awarded by João Pinheiro, in my opinion, is not a penalty. There is a touch on the face, and the video referee makes a reference to João Pinheiro saying that there is a penalty, therefore. Afterwards, they were, in an inexplicable way, for 12 or 13 minutes, checking if there was an offside.”
The president of Sporting considers that there is no penalty and it is also incomprehensible how they are 12 minutes “wanting to find one offside”, he said.
The ‘Leonine’ president said that “people are not used to natural error in favor of Sporting” and argued that arbitration in Portugal has been independent since José Fontelas Gomes, Luciano Gonçalves’ predecessor as president of the Arbitration Council of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), took office in 2016.
“Since Fontelas Gomes, the previous president of the Arbitration Council, and today, Luciano Gonçalves, arbitration has been free. It is independent. It has no owner. I am the president of Sporting and I guarantee that arbitration has no owner. It has errors. What I don’t accept is anyone telling me that the arbitration is worse. How come it was very good before? What is it worse?”, he continued.
Frederico Varandas lamented the “absurd level of noise” surrounding arbitration in Portugal and considered it inappropriate to label the current situation as “unsustainable”, having argued that “unsustainable” were “the 40 years of meetings between Pinto da Costa [antigo presidente do FC Porto] and Luís Filipe Vieira [antigo presidente do Benfica] to define the presidents of the Portuguese Professional Football League or the FPF.
“For decades, arbitration was not independent. Arbitration had an owner: FC Porto or Benfica, with names, Pinto da Costa or Luís Filipe Vieira. I’m 46 years old, and we grew up like that. A normal error, whether from the players, the coach, the president or the referee, for decades had a completely disproportionate form”, he stressed.
Accusing FC Porto and Benfica’s communication strategies of “hysteria, terrorism and noise”, Frederico Varandas said that Sporting “does not apologize for arbitrations” and argued that the Club League should institute much heavier financial fines for managers who speak about arbitrations.
“There is only one way and I have already called the president of the League for the regulations to be changed. Does the president of Sporting talk about arbitration? 100 thousand euros [de multa] ! The presidents of FC Porto. Benfica makes a Twitter, 100 thousand euros, or 200 thousand. It’s the only way”, he reinforced.
With LUSA
