Villas-Boas on Benfica emails: “masses”, “priests” and a Gonçalves | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas, president of FC Porto, used the latest issue of Dragões Magazine to respond to Benfica, following the request submitted by the rival club to the Disciplinary Board of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) in connection with the emails case.

“A Portuguese sports club, known for hiring ‘priests’ to say ‘masses’ at sporting events, asked the FPF Disciplinary Board to punish FC Porto for revealing the contents of such scandalous religious practices. FC Porto wishes justice the best of luck in proving the truth of the facts, in line with the seriousness of the contents, because the chances of some Gonçalves turning up to be used as a scapegoat are extremely high,” wrote the FC Porto leader, continuing: “These sad realities, and an evident inability to manage Portuguese football, are what affect the credibility of the institutions. How much they must miss FC Porto’s ball boys and the décor of the Dragão dressing room, both of which are so sorely missed in Portuguese football to cover up other practices.”

On the 20th, Benfica released a statement in which it confirmed that it had submitted a “request for clarification (…) regarding the measures, conclusions, and sporting consequences that the Disciplinary Board will draw from the judicial decision,” recalling that “between April 2017 and February 2018, FC Porto SAD, through its then Communications Director [Francisco J. Marques], used the club’s official channels to repeatedly and publicly disclose content obtained unlawfully, making serious accusations of corruption, referee manipulation, and distortion of sporting truth against Sport Lisboa e Benfica.”

It should be remembered that, in February last year, the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the appeal court’s rulings in the so-called emails case, ordering FC Porto to compensate Benfica. The board led at the time by the late Pinto da Costa was ordered to pay Benfica 605,300.90 euros, an amount to which 164,000 euros in default interest was added. In total, the dragons were ordered to pay out around 770,000 euros.

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