Villas-Boas and Benfica emails: ‘masses’, ‘priests’ and Gonçalves odds | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas, president of FC Porto, used the latest edition of Dragões Magazine to respond to Benfica, following the request submitted by the rival club to the Disciplinary Board of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) in the context of the email case.

“A Portuguese sports club, known for hiring ‘priests’ to say ‘masses’ at sporting events, asked the FPF Disciplinary Board to punish FC Porto for revealing the contents of such scandalous religious practices. FC Porto wishes justice good luck in proving the truth of the facts, in line with the seriousness of the contents, because the chances of some Gonçalves showing up to be used as a scapegoat are extremely high,” writes the FC Porto leader, continuing: “These are the sad realities, and an evident inability to manage Portuguese football, that affect the credibility of the institutions. How they must miss FC Porto’s ball boys and the Dragão dressing room decor, both of which are so sorely missed in Portuguese football to cover up other practices.”

On the 20th, Benfica released a statement in which it confirmed that it had submitted a “request for clarification (...) regarding the measures, conclusions and sporting consequences that the Disciplinary Board will draw from the judicial decision,” recalling 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 illegally, making serious accusations of corruption, referee manipulation and distortion of sporting truth against Sport Lisboa e Benfica.”

It is worth recalling that, in February of last year, the Supreme Court of Justice upheld the Court of Appeal’s rulings in the so-called email case, ordering FC Porto to compensate Benfica. The board led at the time of the events by the late Pinto da Costa was ordered to pay Benfica 605,300.90 euros, an amount to which 164,000 euros in late-payment interest were added. In total, the dragons were ordered to pay out around 770,000 euros.

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