Varandas: After Sporting match, names who swayed refs for years | OneFootball

After Sporting's victory over Vitória de Guimarães (4-1), Frederico Varandas reacted to the controversy surrounding the incident with Morten Hjulmand against Santa Clara, admitting that he does not believe it was a penalty. In the mixed zone, the Lions' President also stated that Pinto da Costa and Luís Filipe Vieira dominated refereeing in Portugal for years.

“We came here depleted. We've had some injuries, absences due to AFCON, but we showed the strength of the group, of the squad. It was a champion’s game,” he began by saying in the mixed zone after the team’s victory. Regarding the refereeing, he admitted he was already expecting the questions and explained his stance.

“Sporting, whether in victory or defeat, maintains its stance. We are also human and we make mistakes. There are days when we are not at our best. But I always try not to deviate from the stance I believe is necessary to manage a sports club and to have the required sporting culture. I am obliged to come and defend above all the good name of Sporting. If you don’t feel it, you’re not a good person.”

The President also recalled that, historically, refereeing in Portugal was not independent: “For decades, refereeing was not independent, it had an owner. Porto and Benfica. Decades. With names. Pinto da Costa, Luís Filipe Vieira. I am 46 years old, you are from my generation, and we grew up like this. We grew up where mistakes were normal, whether from the coach, the player, the president, or the referee, it was completely disproportionate.”

Frederico Varandas argued that currently refereeing is independent and that mistakes are human: “When I say free and independent, I don’t mean refereeing without mistakes. There are mistakes. What I do not accept is people telling me that refereeing is worse, that this year it’s horrible, that before it was much better. Worse in what? Refereeing today has no owner. It doesn’t. And what happens? If refereeing is like this, in a marathon of 34 rounds, it’s normal for human errors to be proportional among various clubs. People are not prepared, including part of the media, to see mistakes in Sporting’s favor.”

Regarding the specific incident with Hjulmand, Varandas was categorical: “Eish, what is this? Mistakes in Sporting’s favor. Come on, Santa Clara. Penalty awarded by João Pinheiro. My opinion: it’s not a penalty, but let’s tell the truth about the incident. I see former referees, commentators, referees who know the truth. Did they spend 14 minutes trying to find a foul? That’s a lie,” he said.

About VAR, the Lions’ top official also criticized the delay in analyzing the incident: “VAR, in my opinion, did badly… Was there contact to the face? Yes. VAR tells João Pinheiro there’s a penalty. And then, inexplicably, they spent 13 or 14 minutes checking for offside. It was completely incomprehensible how they spent 12 minutes trying to find an offside. What happened? National scandal. No one talked about anything else,” he concluded.

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