Email scandal: Priests club demand sporting bans for FC Porto | OneFootball

Benfica wants FC Porto’s SAD to be subject to “sporting sanctions” following the court decision related to the emails case. In this context, the Eagles have submitted a “request for clarification (…) regarding the measures, conclusions, and sporting consequences that the Disciplinary Council will draw from the court decision.”

In a statement, the Eagles recall that, “between April 2017 and February 2018, FC Porto SAD, through its then Director of Communications [Francisco J. Marques], used the club’s official channels to repeatedly and publicly disclose content obtained illicitly, making serious accusations of corruption, referee manipulation, and tampering with sporting truth by Sport Lisboa e Benfica.”

In February last year, the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the decisions of the Court of Appeal in the so-called emails case, obliging FC Porto to compensate Benfica. The management then led by the late Pinto da Costa was ordered to pay the Eagles €605,300.90, an amount to which €164,000 in late payment interest was added. In total, the Dragons were forced to pay around €770,000.

“Sport Lisboa e Benfica informs that it has formally submitted a request for clarification to the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation regarding the measures, conclusions, and sporting consequences that the Disciplinary Council will draw from the final court decision that convicts FC Porto SAD in the so-called emails case.

Sport Lisboa e Benfica recalls that, between April 2017 and February 2018, FC Porto SAD, through its then Director of Communications, used the club’s official channels to repeatedly and publicly disclose content obtained illicitly, making serious accusations of corruption, referee manipulation, and tampering with sporting truth by Sport Lisboa e Benfica – accusations that were later proven in court to be false and completely unfounded, and which also constituted serious reputational damage to national competitions and a direct and grave form of influencing sporting agents.

It is also important to emphasize that such conduct was carried out in the exercise of duties, with the knowledge, validation, and public support of FC Porto SAD’s administration, not as isolated acts or individual excesses, but rather as a concerted institutional action.

With the court decision now final, with no possibility of appeal, and considering that the Disciplinary Council opened a case on this matter at the end of 2017, with no developments for more than eight and a half years, Sport Lisboa e Benfica believes that there are no further facts to ascertain or analyze at this stage.

In this sense, it is imperative and urgent that the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation clarify, unequivocally and without further delay, what sporting consequences and sanctions will be applied to Futebol Clube do Porto, SAD, given the seriousness of the facts confirmed and proven in court.”

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