CLUB STATEMENT FROM FREDERICO VARANDAS
12 Feb, 2022
The Sporting CP president addresses the incidents in the game against FC Porto
The president of Sporting Clube de Portugal, Frederico Varandas, spoke after the game between FC Porto and Sporting CP, expressing his displeasure with what happened on and off the field of play at the Estádio do Dragão.
“I will soon be 43 years old, and this game reflects what the last 40 years of Portuguese football have been like. It reflects how the last 40 years for FC Porto under Pinto da Costa have been. What surprises me the most is to see mayors and distinguished politicians in attendance, all of them turning a blind eye to yet another decadent and horrible spectacle in a country that wants to be part of the European Union and of the First World.
Here, at the end of the game, we saw members of the organisation of the event, wearing blue bibs -and there is footage of this- invading the pitch and attacking players.
This is the worst thing in sport in Portugal, but nobody has the courage to do something about it. It is treated like something normal.
(...) I have praised the refereeing, but João Pinheiro is not at all prepared for this. I don't know if it was because of the pandemic and him being used to refereeing without spectators in attendance, but I don't know if he is prepared to referee a game of this pressure with an audience. I would like to say that it's not enough to reach the interval and apologise to the players and to Hugo Viana, saying that Coates shouldn't have been shown a yellow. The player fouled was Coates and he was the one who was shown the yellow card -and then that becomes decisive in him being sent off.
Sporting CP played with one player less in the second half, when FC Porto were never going to turn the game around. Then we had a ridiculous yellow for Palhinha and the referee also apologises for it, saying that it was not a booking. This referee doesn't have the courage to referee in such an environment. Unfortunately the game ended up with a spectacle that was depressing.
I wish to make an appeal: I am an army officer and I hope that there are GNR officers who report everything they have seen today. The 40 years of Pinto da Costa were very well demonstrated here in this game, but this is not the same Sporting CP of the last 40 years.
In April we will be here in the semifinal of the Taça de Portugal, and if they have to bring in fans acting like cheerleaders as ballboys, then so be it."