‘Irony and pressure’: FC Porto hit out at rivals and Portuguese refereeing | OneFootball

On Monday, FC Porto responded to reports about the opening of a disciplinary proceeding by the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), related to the match against SC Braga, played on November 2.

In a lengthy statement, the blue and white club expresses concern about the state of refereeing in Portugal, denounces alleged double standards and persecutory behavior by referees, and also criticizes SL Benfica, accusing them of trying to influence refereeing through statements and communication strategies.

The Dragons state they remain fully available to cooperate with sports authorities, but demand clarification from the FPF regarding the prior disclosure of official documentation and call for a deep reflection on the independence and quality of national refereeing.

At stake are the reports regarding the opening of a disciplinary proceeding against FC Porto

In light of today’s reports, stating that the FPF Disciplinary Council has opened a disciplinary proceeding against FC Porto for incidents that occurred during the match between FC Porto and SC Braga on November 2, 2025, FC Porto hereby provides the following clarifications, reaffirming its respect for the autonomy of disciplinary bodies and its total willingness to cooperate in any necessary proceedings:

1. FC Porto has not yet received, from the competent authorities, the final reports of the match, and therefore reserves the right to comment on them at the appropriate time. In this regard, the Club demands that the FPF urgently clarify the apparent prior disclosure of official documentation through private channels before the directly involved parties have received it.

2. From FC Porto’s perspective, serious problems persist in Portuguese refereeing, such as double standards, lack of consistency in decisions, and the ongoing conditioning of referees before and after matches by direct and indirect participants (some allegedly linked to sports companies). Additionally, season after season, there continue to be attempts to whitewash key incidents with direct impact on results through the coordinated behavior of commentators with privileged relationships within decision-making bodies.

3. Concrete examples of the above-mentioned problems this season, from FC Porto’s perspective, include the following incidents:– the incident involving Sudakov in Guimarães;– the unpunished expulsions of Richard Ríos in Amadora and Alverca;– the penalty awarded in the SL Benfica-CD Tondela match;– the unpunished expulsion of Gonçalo Inácio in Famalicão;– the unawarded penalty in favor of SC Braga at Alvalade;– the unpunished expulsion of Diomande last Friday, against FC Alverca.

4. Regarding referee Fábio Veríssimo, FC Porto considers it important to note that, after the last FC Arouca-FC Porto match, and in front of several witnesses, the referee in question threatened Club officials with expulsions and other forms of intimidation—threats that, in FC Porto’s view, materialized in last Sunday’s match. The incident will be reported to the Disciplinary Council, so that the referee can explain the motivations for this conduct which, in FC Porto’s opinion, not only breaches his duties but also constitutes persecutory behavior.

5. FC Porto finds the timing and content of today’s statement by SL Benfica at the very least surprising. To begin with, it is ironic to see a club that, as is public knowledge, has been involved in recent episodes related to refereeing—some of which are the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, notwithstanding the presumption of innocence—and whose president, as widely reported, confronted referees in the tunnels leading to the locker rooms, now referring to supposed pressures on referees. This statement is even more curious considering that, on the eve of the most recent Super Cup, SL Benfica issued a note listing a series of alleged errors by none other than referee Fábio Veríssimo, an initiative which, in FC Porto’s view, can objectively be interpreted as an attempt to influence his performance in the match in question.It is also noteworthy that the fourth official in the FC Porto-SC Braga match, Gustavo Correia, is precisely the referee who was almost assaulted on the pitch at Estádio da Luz in the match between SL Benfica and Sporting CP last May—raising, among other things, security concerns and the question of how conduct of such gravity might affect referees’ ability to perform their duties free from any undue influence.

6. All these circumstances require a deep reflection on the current state of Portuguese football and, in particular, on refereeing. Last Saturday, FC Porto requested a meeting with the president of the Refereeing Council for the next league break, at which time it will reiterate its indignation with the direction of this first third of the competition and its willingness to seek ways to strengthen and protect the quality and independence of refereeing in Portugal.

7. FC Porto suggests to its rivals that, instead of focusing on statements and emails—in which some are masters—and on communication strategies likely to pressure referees, they should make themselves available, once and for all, to find real solutions to the structural challenges facing Portuguese football.

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