Rui Santos backs Sporting and accuses Villas-Boas of crimes | OneFootball

Sports commentator Rui Santos defended Sporting and harshly criticized André Villas Boas, commenting on the recent climate in Portuguese football. In a sharp tone, he questioned the behavior of the blue-and-white coach, recalling the president’s complaints to Media Capital shareholder, saying that "coercion is a crime".

“André Villas Boas has just seen Porto drop two points in the league, which is still in a good position to reach the title, but the nervousness is palpable (…) It is even possible that in the handball case it will be difficult to prove, or maybe not, since the Public Prosecutor’s Office stepped in, that alleged toxic substances caused strange effects in the area intended for Sporting,” he began by saying in his opinion segment on CNN Portugal.

Rui Santos does not identify with the style of the blue-and-white official: “André Villas Boas can try to defend himself however he wants, even with the joke of putting a spa at the lions’ disposal on Sporting’s next visit to Dragão for the Portuguese Cup. The problem is that André Villas-Boas thinks all these things are trivial and even ridiculed Sporting’s president for having taken those episodes to the meeting with the minister. Even more serious was the fact that he revealed he went to complain to Media Capital’s main shareholder, Mário Ferreira, because he felt persecuted by the media.”

The commentator did not spare criticism of the dragons official’s behavior: “Where was André Villas-Boas when, in a rebuilding phase, he was hearing words of praise and tolerance regarding the difficult work he was carrying out without sporting results? He was talking to shareholders of media groups, pressuring freedom of the press, does he know that coercion is a crime, or does he think that this kind of pressure is part of football, which is a bubble within formal democracy?”

To conclude, Rui Santos fired off pointed questions: “Has he lost his memory regarding the persecution he was subjected to? Does he think he will erase with a rubber the right that Pinto da Costa believed he had acquired to die as Porto’s president? Does he think staying halfway across the bridge is a solution? The rights of civic freedom are not just for him. Does he not realize that admitting to having made a phone call to a major shareholder of a leading media group was a cannon shot in the foot, intensifying the idea that André Villas-Boas is as undemocratic as most club presidents in Portugal, who only want to hear what their scripts dictate, or as if he seems not to care about any of that, but to have everything and everyone under control.”

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