Varandas, straight-faced: “Benfica and FC Porto sway referees” | OneFootball

It was not only at Sporting’s players, following the defeat against Torreense in the Portuguese Cup final, that Frederico Varandas aimed harsh criticism. The Sporting president also targeted his rivals, arguing that “Benfica and FC Porto have a strategy of putting as much pressure as possible on refereeing.”

“They post tweets, statements on Facebook and Instagram. They show incidents where they were supposedly harmed, but never the ones where they were favoured. They show incidents where their rivals are favoured, but not when they are harmed. They only tell half the story. There are tweets, newsletters, and it puts enormous pressure on refereeing,” said the green-and-white leader, on the sidelines of the 70th anniversary ceremony of the University Stadium of Lisbon.

“Sporting are not going to win this war. The smaller clubs want the big clubs to keep doing whatever they want. Sporting could have had a very good season, but delivered minimal results because they failed to win trophies. As in the last seven years, it was never because of refereeing. It was because of our own incompetence!” assured Varandas, who also responded to FC Porto president André Villas-Boas, after he had described the Lions’ proposals at the League General Assembly as pathetic and a bit of smart-aleckery.

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