Portuguese Football Federation disciplinary council fines Benfica communications chief Gonçalo Guimarães €2,040 | OneFootball

Gonçalo Guimarães, Benfica’s communications director, has been fined €2,040 by the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation. According to Glorioso 1904, the sanction follows confrontations with journalist Gustavo Lourenço in separate episodes in the Azores and in Seixal.

Before Santa Clara v Benfica in the Azores, Guimarães, previously fined, was accused of stepping between Gustavo Lourenço and Nicolás Otamendi on the team’s hotel arrival, using physical contact. Before the home game against Real Madrid in the first leg of the play-off for a place in the Champions League last 16, words were exchanged and the journalist reported threats from the Benfica official.

His conduct was found to have exceeded the remit of a press officer and to have breached duties of integrity, propriety and restraint towards other participants and third parties, particularly journalists on duty.

He was judged to have adopted a harsh and inappropriate stance on both occasions towards a journalist carrying out his job. He was found to have acted freely and knowingly in a way liable to disrupt and disrespect journalistic activity and to breach required standards of conduct.

Decisions of the disciplinary council can be appealed, under law and regulations, to the Conselho de Justiça or the Tribunal Arbitral do Desporto.

Source: Glorioso 1904