Sports minister meets Sporting after ‘toxic’ dressing-room claim | OneFootball

The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport will meet with the Sporting president, at his request, following the incidents reported during the visit of the national two-time handball champions to FC Porto, a government source confirmed today.

Contacted by Lusa, an official source from the ministry led by Margarida Balseiro Lopes confirmed the request for a meeting and that it has been scheduled for Wednesday.

“In the current context of national handball and the Government’s ongoing monitoring of the issue, the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, and the Secretary of State for Sport, Pedro Dias, together with Miguel Laranjeiro, president of the Portuguese Handball Federation, the body that regulates the sport in Portugal, will receive the president of Sporting Clube de Portugal next Wednesday,” the response to Lusa reads.

Complaint of repeated practices and the Handball Federation’s position

In the same statement, Sporting denounced practices of “disrespect” and “pressure” by FC Porto, arguing that it is “essential that those who regulate sport in Portugal take a firm and uncompromising stance and punish, with the utmost severity, these unworthy behaviours, which have already gone beyond the limits of what is acceptable in a state governed by the rule of law”.

“Sporting considers it imperative that all institutions responsible for overseeing sport promote sporting integrity, and it is unacceptable that behaviour of this nature — repeatedly carried out by the same parties — should bring shame and call into question the image of Portuguese sport internationally,” it added.

The ‘Lions’ also maintain that these “episodes are neither isolated nor accidental”, recalling recent cases also involving FC Porto, such as the video shown on the dressing-room television to football referee Fábio Veríssimo, in a “clear attempt to exert pressure”, as well as ball boys hiding balls and the theft of towels in the Primeira Liga clássico at the Dragão.

“If there was still any naive illusion that the dark practices of the past had been eradicated, reality has taken care to destroy it in a brutal and unequivocal way. What we are seeing today is not merely a repetition: it is a refined escalation. More vile, more underhanded and even more indefensible than the darkest episodes that stained Portuguese sport,” the Lisbon club detailed on Sunday.

Before that, the board of the Portuguese Handball Federation (FAP) had already filed a report with the Disciplinary Council to determine disciplinary responsibility for the incidents that occurred in the clássico between FC Porto and Sporting.

The match, corresponding to the first round of the second phase of the national championship, ended with a 33-30 win for Sporting and started about 15 minutes late after the Lisbon team complained of a strong smell in their dressing room, with coach Ricardo Costa and player Christian Moga receiving medical assistance.

FC Porto, which “absolutely, clearly and unequivocally” denied the alleged incidents in the away dressing room at the Dragão Arena, accused player Martim Costa, through the club’s general director for sports, Mário Santos, of having assaulted a blue-and-white supporter during the warm-up for the match.

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