Varandas slams Villas-Boas over Porto: “Not fresh air, but hypocrisy” | OneFootball

Frederico Varandas attacked once again, this time directing his criticism at André Villas-Boas. «Now, the video of shame. January 2024: Villas-Boas in the campaign said it's time to build a winning future with principles of ethics and transparency. Across the country, it was said 'a breath of fresh air is coming'. Today, unfortunately, I can say that the whole country has already realized. It's not a breath of fresh air, it's staleness, the worst hypocrisy that Portuguese football, unfortunately, has ever known. We're not talking about a heated moment. We're talking about something premeditated. Videos of a children's tournament. It's too bad. It's too low. More than once, I heard the current president of FC Porto criticize everything and everyone. The League, the Federation, the rivals, who do nothing to enhance the image of Portuguese football. I ask, is there anything worse for the image than these third-world practices? No, there isn't. And I confess that I am surprised at how the media lost interest in this... Something premeditated, planned, and executed,» he said.

He added, continuing his reasoning: «This doesn't end here. Following this, FC Porto issues a statement with seven points. They attack the Federation, the referee, the rivals, with errors from other games with other referees. This really happened, it's from the real world, not from perception. There isn't, among the seven points, a single point with regret, an apology, or where it is said that it will not happen again. Doesn't this shock you? There was nothing about values, ethics, and nothing about dignity. Do you know what went wrong for them? It's that at the time they used this manual, the referees didn't write, they were afraid. But they forgot that today there are referees with courage, who are not intimidated, who write. I want to appeal here to all referees to write everything: threats from officials, offenses from presidents, videos playing in their locker room. Write everything, whether it's from Benfica, FC Porto, or Sporting. If it's from Sporting, I'm the first to criticize. Following these two sad moments, we had a comical moment. I was watching Famalicão-FC Porto and there was a protest about refereeing, they informed that they would enter the field alone, but didn't the FC Porto team show solidarity and enter with the referees against the pressure on refereeing? It's necessary not to be ashamed. It's necessary to have the audacity to treat people like fools. Whoever wrote that manual, the former president of FC Porto, between him and me there's a world that separates us, but I have to recognize that he was an extremely intelligent person and would never have done this second part. It's simply pathetic. Still, about the president of FC Porto, I heard him very concerned about the VAR and the deficient conditions in which the VAR is installed in various Portuguese football venues. It's not enough to have good stadiums. It's also necessary to have someone who won't go there to turn off the VAR.»

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