Benfica complaint prompts FPF to act on Santa Clara v Sporting refs | OneFootball

The Refereeing Council wants to punish the refereeing team from the Santa Clara - Sporting match. Following Benfica’s complaint about what happened, the body overseen by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) has reportedly already decided that it does not want to let the situation go unpunished.

Santa Clara and Sporting were tied at one goal each in the final moments of the match, which took place last Saturday, November 8, in the Azores. Geovany Quenda mishit the ball while trying to cross into the opposing area, and the ball went out over the goal line. However, the assistant referee and the main referee awarded a corner to Sporting, who scored the winning goal from that play.

According to the newspaper Record, this mistake by João Gonçalves and Ângelo Carneiro created immense discomfort within the FPF’s Refereeing Council, which is not willing to tolerate this kind of situation that keeps happening in Portuguese football.

Therefore, the same national newspaper writes, a punishment is being prepared for the main referee and the assistant referee from the Santa Clara - Sporting match. The FPF’s Refereeing Council is expected to remove both referees from any matches in the upcoming rounds of Portuguese football.

It should be recalled that Benfica reacted to the incident just minutes after the end of the match: "A goal kick turned into a corner, a colossal, laughable error by the referee and assistant. That’s 2 more points Sporting wins thanks to refereeing mistakes. 2 extra points in the standings, which they should not have. There must be consequences or Portuguese football will lose all its credibility for good."

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