“AF Porto will do all it can to help FC Porto reach the top flight” | OneFootball

FC Porto will begin competing in senior men’s futsal in the national Third Division from the 2026/27 season, with the aim of quickly reaching the top tier, the president of the Porto Football Association (AF Porto) revealed.

“FC Porto entered women’s football very recently and reached the level it has reached. I believe the same will happen in futsal. We were lacking another Primeira Liga club with women’s football and futsal, like Rio Ave,” acknowledged José Manuel Neves, as quoted by Lusa on the sidelines of the signing ceremony of a partnership agreement between AF Porto and a multinational sports goods company in Matosinhos.

The Dragons benefited from the regulatory change introduced by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) in the Third Division to apply directly for the national futsal competitions in 2026/27, without having to go through the district championships.

The Third Division is made up of 50 clubs: 42 are divided into three groups of 14 according to their geographical location, while the remaining eight form an exclusively Azorean pool. “Objections from other clubs? I have nothing to comment on, because FC Porto used a mechanism that is provided for in FPF regulations,” said the head of the country’s largest district football association.

Futsal is the third sport introduced by the board of André Villas-Boas at FC Porto, after the men’s wheelchair basketball team and the women’s football team. The latter rose from the third tier to the top tier in two consecutive seasons and will make its debut in the main league in 2026/27. “When FC Porto enters a sport, it is to take things very seriously. It happened in women’s football and it will happen in futsal. AF Porto will do everything to help FC Porto progress and reach the first division,” stressed José Manuel Neves, who hopes to see the blue and whites alongside Benfica, the two-time national champion, and Sporting, the European champion, in the top tier.

The president of AF Porto was also confronted with the news that nine referees from the top category, affiliated with that association, had reportedly resigned their membership of the Portuguese Association of Football Referees (APAF). “I do not know the reasons and I am not going to comment on something I know nothing about. I know about the matter from the press,” he said, adding that none of the referees had spoken publicly about the issue, just like APAF president José Borges.

One of the names mentioned by the sports press is that of international referee Gustavo Correia, reprimanded by the FPF Disciplinary Council (CD) for breaching duties in the report of the match between Famalicão and Benfica (2-2), played in May, in the 32nd and penultimate round of the 2025/26 League. “In this case, Gustavo Correia did not seek [help from AF Porto]. If he does, our doors will always be open to receive our members,” José Manuel Neves concluded.

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