Varandas: Rivals must accept refereeing calls favouring Sporting | OneFootball

Frederico Varandas spoke to journalists after Sporting’s 4-1 victory over Vitória SC and addressed the tense atmosphere currently present in Portuguese football, at a time marked by criticism of refereeing.

«Sporting, whether in victory or defeat, maintains its posture. We are human, we make mistakes, but I try not to stray from the posture of managing a club and having the necessary sporting culture. I am obliged to defend Sporting’s good name. If you don’t feel it, you’re not a good person’s child. We have to go back a bit. For decades, refereeing was not independent, it had owners: FC Porto and Benfica, Pinto da Costa and Luís Filipe Vieira. That’s how we grew up. A normal, human error that exists was blown out of proportion. Since Fontelas Gomes and Luciano Gonçalves took over the Refereeing Committee, refereeing is free and has no owner. There are mistakes, but I won’t accept, because I love football, being told that refereeing is worse and that this year is horrible. Worse in what way? Refereeing has no owner. If it’s like this, in a marathon it’s normal for human errors to be proportional, something that didn’t happen for decades. The media and people are not prepared to see mistakes in Sporting’s favor. Penalty awarded by João Pinheiro? In my opinion, it’s not a penalty. They say it took 14 minutes to find a foul. VAR points it out, refers to the face block. That’s it. Then, inexplicably, 12 or 13 minutes checking for an offside on a penalty. I don’t understand. I don’t think it’s a penalty, and it’s incomprehensible how they tried to find an offside for 12 minutes. National scandal, nothing else was talked about. He was the best Portuguese referee, since 2018 he’s had countless unfortunate matches in title games. Unfortunate moments. Did I see any outrage or newspaper covers? I didn’t. Just go back 24 hours, there was a Farense vs Benfica with a simulation by a Benfica player. The referee calls a free kick and Benfica scores. What happened a month ago in the Azores corner. A wrongly awarded corner led to a Sporting goal. It made newspaper covers, shame, mistakes, cyclones. And the silence in Faro? Why are there double standards? People are not used to mistakes in Sporting’s favor, they need to get used to it. I don’t think it’s normal, much of the media is responsible. I don’t see this treatment for other clubs. There are nine Benfica penalties, I won’t even talk about it. Former referees would say, if it was Sporting, that it’s not a penalty. This collective hysteria… Don’t joke. It’s very important: today we are heading towards a completely absurd level of noise. Who’s in the Champions League? The best international referees. By the field referee, we would have three points. Game with Marseille, major errors, against Brugge a straight red card. They are international referees. Is it a wrongly awarded corner and a wrongly given penalty that call refereeing into question? Do you remember refereeing in the 90s, 2000, 2015, and 2017? Unsustainable, says a parachutist who just landed [Farioli]. Unsustainable were 40 years of “fruit”, of meetings between Vieira and Pinto da Costa choosing presidents of the League and FPF and referees, of “masses”, of priests, of agents buying players to lose games. If it was about elections, it was elections. The obsession continues and there are no more elections. The 12-minute delay joke. It’s nothing new, Benfica finishes and it’s normal. So does FC Porto. These are communication strategies of hysteria, terrorism, noise. FC Porto issues a statement calling for action from the FPF president».

«The Refereeing Committee is part of the program plan. Sporting votes on projects and we presented a project to Benfica and FC Porto. Pedro Proença wanted reflection groups on refereeing, coaches, players, competitions, and infrastructure, deliberative and without decision-making power. There are 84 delegates and Sporting received invitations. Anyone who wanted could sign up to a group that is worth zero. There are no referee appointments, not even under the Refereeing Committee. Everyone criticizes refereeing so much. I want referees to be better, to make fewer mistakes, for VAR to work better, but the Refereeing Committee is doing things. Grades started to be made public, there are VAR and non-VAR referee careers. Back to FC Porto. Profound ignorance of the FC Porto structure, which I don’t believe, or lying to create noise. Fifty days have passed since Braga vs FC Porto and they are satisfied with the result of the audit. What happened with Fábio Veríssimo? Fifty days and you, questions? Not to me, ask them at press conferences».

«It’s suffocating for referees. There is a lack of courage from the media. Sporting loses titles, finishes fourth and doesn’t complain about refereeing. When they want to criticize, they use the narrative of the big three. Sporting doesn’t make excuses for refereeing. Look at what’s being said. After referee appointments, we’ve reached the ridiculous point of seeing statements. The regulations need to be changed. Sporting’s president talks about refereeing, FC Porto’s president talks about refereeing, Benfica tweets? 100,000 euros or 200,000 euros. Let’s see how it goes from now on. I leave a warning. This, for Sporting’s locker room, is super fuel for the three-peat».

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