Benfica pundit mocks Rui Borges live on air, but ANTF backs Sporting coach | OneFootball

José Manuel Antunes, former Benfica official, humiliated Rui Borges live, claiming that the Sporting coach "lacks the intellectual level" to manage a club of such stature. The National Association of Football Coaches (ANTF) came to the defense of the green and white leader.

"The National Association of Football Coaches hereby expresses its repudiation of the comments recently made on a television channel against Sporting CP coach, Rui Borges, which aim to question his professional competence while simultaneously affronting the fundamental values of dignity and respect in our profession", it reads.

The ANTF recalls the words of the former Benfica official and refers to the achievements of Rui Borges: "'He is not exactly a tavern figure, but he is a person who lacks the intellectual level to be the coach of a big club'. The phrase, proclaimed on a specialized football critique program on a national open channel, follows other similar ones by various authors and was made regarding a national champion coach with nearly ten years of career, who has gone through and respected all levels of specific training required for the practice of his activity".

"The commentator in question perhaps does not realize that being a football coach involves working with people, managing emotions, and making decisions… under pressure, which requires high intellectual and emotional capacity. Reducing the role of a coach to a lack of 'intellectual capacity' is disrespectful to an entire professional class, whose rigorous training process demands personal investment, knowledge, continuous study, and thorough research", it adds.

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