Otávio Machado won't blame FC Porto: “Must be probed, not deliberate” | OneFootball

CMTV commentator Otávio Machado was clear in his statements about the incident in the Dragão Arena dressing room, before the handball derby between FC Porto and Sporting: he does not believe the blue-and-white club is reviving practices from the past, but he argues that the situation must be thoroughly investigated.

“No, no. I think this has to be looked into, it has to happen,” said the former coach, refusing to point the finger at the Dragons’ top management before establishing what really happened. A position that aligns with FC Porto’s own view, as the club “absolutely, clearly and unequivocally” denied any irregularity in the visitors’ dressing room, describing the insinuations as “serious, abusive and completely without any basis.”

To reinforce his argument, Otávio Machado referred to an episode he experienced firsthand at Sporting, where, on the eve of a Champions League match, an employee switched the turf treatment products — using herbicide instead of insecticide — and burned all the grass. “The pitch was completely burnt. They had grass cut from one of the other fields and spread it on top to hide it,” he recalled. Despite the chaos, Sporting beat Monaco 3-0. And the Sporting board had nothing to do with what happened — it was human error by an employee.

The moral of the story is clear: what happens behind the scenes at a club does not always reflect an institutional decision. “Any behavior by someone outside the structure could even lead to all this,” Machado stressed.

The commentator also lamented the atmosphere surrounding Portuguese football at this stage of the season, considering that the language, the actions and the statements are going beyond all reasonable limits — and this precisely when the country has three clubs in the quarter-finals of European competitions, a historic achievement that deserved a different kind of spotlight.

FC Porto, as usual, is acting transparently: it opened its facilities to the PSP and granted accredited journalists access for a direct and independent verification of the dressing room conditions. Those who have nothing to hide, hide nothing.

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