Sporting’s rival keeps playing the victim, claims referees favour the Lions | OneFootball

Rui Costa, president of Benfica and candidate for the club's presidency, explained that he will not respond to the words of Frederico Varandas, the top official of Sporting, but made serious statements, accusing the lions of being favored by refereeing.

"I want healthier Portuguese football, but I don't want Benfica to be stepped on, and at this moment that's how I feel about Benfica. There are very evident things, there are games with great evidence and always to the same side. Benfica obviously cannot be blindfolded or turn a blind eye to what is happening. What happened in the Cup final is too significant for there not to be measures to improve Portuguese football," he said, to the NOW channel.

Rui Costa assured that he is "not accusing A, B, or C of benefiting," but rather "reporting evidence," pointing to the solution: "I want the Refereeing Council, Federation, and League to observe. To understand what is happening. But I don't want benefits for Benfica, I want games to be contested on the field, it should be like that, and that's not what we have been witnessing."

Asked about the audios released in 2024/25, accusing Sporting of "dominating Portuguese football," Rui Costa assured: "They were not debatable cases, they were clear and evident. Benfica expressed itself at the time and that night was outraged. It came from the Cup final, from a penalty against Arouca at home, considered a penalty with the head, and from a Santa Clara-Sporting game, with a very clear penalty against Sporting in the title decision, three or four rounds before the end of the championship."

"I don't know if it was to benefit Sporting or to harm Benfica, I felt harmed. This Cup game... it's as if I entered the Cosme Damião Museum and they had taken the Cup from there. But I am not accusing anyone individually, I am accusing the national football organization. Do I think Sporting is currently being favored? I think so! I don't know if it's because they dominate, I tend to trust people and hope I'm not wrong," he added.

"Are we going to discuss the Estoril game? Was it a penalty? Was it offside? Whoever says that Sporting's goal is not offside has to explain the Sporting goal a year before that knocked us out of the Portuguese Cup, exactly the same. We want explanations. Benfica wants to compete in the championship on the field. The Estoril game shows that Sporting was favored. The Refereeing Council has to respond to this. The referee of the Cup final said they mourned the Cup final, now they have to mourn Estoril too, it was the same referee," he concluded.

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