Tiago Silva: “There’s a narrative painting Porto as cheats” | OneFootball

Tiago Silva was categorical in dismantling what he describes as an organized narrative against FC Porto, rejecting the idea of a conspiracy but denouncing something he considers even more pernicious: the deliberate construction of a story to label the club as a practitioner of «cheating, unsporting practices and even criminal acts».

The CMTV commentator explained the mechanics: «They start from one fact, invent others and then ride the wave.» And he traced the origin of this narrative to the episode involving the images shown during the FC Porto-Braga match, refereed by Veríssimo.

Tiago Silva detailed the timeline of events: at half-time in that match, images of FC Porto’s disallowed goal were shown on loop in the dressing room. «Then a fact was invented — that during half-time images were also shown of another incident, from a youth match, where the same referee had not disallowed a goal,» he explained. However, the commentator stressed that this «turned out to be a lie»: the images from the youth match were indeed shown, «but only at the end of the game, 45 minutes after the final whistle».

The commentator also recalled that the referee himself, at half-time, did not call any delegate and did not attach importance to what had happened, considering that it was «possibly a technical problem». Veríssimo only seems to have understood the intention when he saw the images from the youth match — already at the end of the game — and filed a complaint on the grounds that there had been an attempt at coercion. «At the end of the game, not at half-time,» Tiago Silva stressed.

To highlight the double standards, the commentator drew a comparison he considers revealing: «The same Sporting whose president, in 2019, during a Portimonense-Sporting match, went down to the tunnel at half-time to confront referee João Pinheiro over Bolasie’s sending-off. So that was no longer considered disgraceful.»

Tiago Silva then moved on to the most recent episode: during FC Porto-Sporting, television cameras caught an FC Porto ball girl holding onto a ball that was meant to be put back into play — something the commentator himself acknowledged as «an ugly thing».

This context is linked to the case that marked the week: before the handball match between FC Porto and Sporting, at the Dragão Arena, coach Ricardo Costa and pivot Christian Moga had to receive medical assistance from INEM after claiming they had detected an «intense smell» in the away dressing room. FC Porto denied the accusations in an «absolute, clear and unequivocal» manner, classifying them as «serious, abusive and completely devoid of any basis», and contacted the Handball Federation and the PSP for an immediate verification of the conditions at the venue.

In Tiago Silva’s view, all these episodes are part of the same strategy: to build a public narrative that sticks to FC Porto the image of a club that resorts to illicit practices in order to win — regardless of the facts.

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