Varandas said with a straight face: “Benfica and FC Porto pressure refs” | OneFootball

It was not only Sporting’s players, following the defeat to Torreense in the Portuguese Cup final, who were the target of harsh criticism from Frederico Varandas. The Sporting president also took aim at his rivals, arguing that «Benfica and FC Porto have a strategy of putting maximum pressure on refereeing».

«They post tweets, statements on Facebook and Instagram. They highlight incidents where they are supposedly wronged, but never mention the ones where they benefit. They show incidents where their rivals are favoured, but not when they are harmed. They only tell half the story. Tweets go out, newsletters go out, and it all puts enormous pressure on refereeing», said the green-and-whites’ leader, on the sidelines of the 70th anniversary ceremony of the Lisbon University Stadium.

«Sporting are not going to win this war. The smaller clubs want the big clubs to keep doing whatever they want. Sporting could have had a very good season, but produced only minimal results because we failed to win trophies. Like in the last seven years, it was never because of refereeing. It was because of our own incompetence!», Varandas said, also responding to FC Porto president André Villas-Boas, after he had described the Lions’ proposals at the League General Assembly as pathetic and a crafty trick.

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