Mário Santos accuses Martim Costa (Sporting) of assaulting fan | OneFootball

FC Porto’s general director of sports, Mário Santos, stated that Sporting handball player Martim Costa allegedly assaulted an FC Porto supporter during the warm-up for the match between the two teams.

“It is tiring to witness this kind of episode and see Martim Costa’s assault on an FC Porto supporter, who will be properly identified, being ignored,” said the Porto official, following the controversy surrounding the events before the match of the first round of the second phase of the national handball championship, played at the Dragão Arena.

Mário Santos added that there is footage of the alleged incident and described the situation as “far too obvious.” “There are images proving that he approached a supporter and allegedly pushed him during the warm-up phase. He went into the stands and pushed a supporter. We are dealing with sporting events, and there is a legal framework to prevent these things from happening,” he said.

The FC Porto official argued that, if there is evidence, “the responsible authorities must open the appropriate proceedings,” stressing that representatives of the Portuguese Handball Federation were present at the venue.

In addition, Mário Santos denied reports that members of Sporting had needed hospital treatment following the alleged incidents before the match.

“It is false that anyone was hospitalized. No one left the Dragão Arena, and it is absolutely surreal for this to end with hospital visits that never happened,” he said.

The official also criticized what he considers to be “baseless noise” surrounding the case, reiterating the position already taken by the club in the statement released earlier.

“FC Porto received Sporting with full dignity and within the rules for a fair, noble and loyal competition. We do not want to win outside the field, nor take part in theatrics,” he concluded.

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