European court orders Portuguese state to compensate FC Porto | OneFootball

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Portuguese state to pay FC Porto SAD compensation of €15,300, finding that there had been a violation of freedom of expression. The ruling, made public this Tuesday and approved unanimously, also orders the payment of €6,465 in legal costs and expenses.

Despite this specific ruling, the ECHR found that, in general, the disciplinary sanctions imposed by the Disciplinary Board of the Portuguese Football Federation on Pinto da Costa, former president, and Francisco J. Marques, former communications director, were justified. According to the court, the criticism of refereeing made by the FC Porto officials went beyond the limits of freedom of expression.

The case reached the European court after several disciplinary punishments were imposed on SAD and its executives. At issue were statements made on the program «Universo do Porto – Da Bancada», on Porto Canal, about the refereeing of the match between Benfica and Estoril Praia, as well as texts in Dragões Diário and an interview given to the newspaper O Jogo.

In total, the ECHR examined several disciplinary cases: three against Francisco J. Marques and FC Porto SAD for statements from January and February 2017; one against the communications director for remarks made on a television program on 28 February 2017; one against SAD for comments published in Dragões Diário on 8 April 2019; and one against Pinto da Costa for an editorial in the same publication on 6 May 2019 and for an interview on 14 May 2019.

In its assessment, the European court upheld most of the decisions of the national courts, which had already confirmed the disciplinary sanctions. The judges concluded that the statements went beyond technical criticism of the referees’ work and instead included accusations of «corruption; match manipulation and deliberate favoritism toward certain teams».

The judgment highlights that «the language used was hyperbolic, speculative and did not support the accusations made», also stressing that the complainants «did not present evidence to support the allegations of corruption and match manipulation». Therefore, the ECHR concluded that there had been no violation of Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights in five of the cases examined.

However, in one specific case against FC Porto SAD, the court ruled differently, finding that the sanction imposed violated freedom of expression, which led to the compensation now ordered against Portugal.

The judges also recalled that referees, because of the central role they play, «must tolerate a higher level of criticism than an ordinary citizen, including harsh or hostile criticism», as long as such criticism is limited to their professional performance and does not concern their private lives.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.