Know All About This? Frederico Varandas cleared of yet another ban | OneFootball

The CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) has revoked the 51-day suspension and the €8,568 fine imposed on Frederico Varandas by the FPF Disciplinary Council, which were decided in April following statements made by the Sporting president on the club's channel about referee Tiago Martins, after he officiated the Nacional-FC Porto match in the 2024/25 season.

On April 5, Varandas had been sanctioned with a 51-day suspension and a fine of €8,568, following criticism of Tiago Martins after the match between Nacional and FC Porto and a complaint filed by the Portuguese Football Referees Association (APAF). This punishment has now been annulled by the CAS, in a ruling dated November 4 and made public today.

“I give the example of Tiago Martins in the Famalicão-FC Porto match. He made a decision in which he disallowed a goal for FC Porto and awarded a penalty to Famalicão. It was a correct decision by Tiago Martins. FC Porto lost points and, afterwards, we saw an ‘old school’ communication, which we have seen many times before. And a meeting was requested with the Refereeing Council [CA]. I don’t do that. There was a lot of noise, everyone ‘going after’ Tiago Martins. Then, he refereed the Nacional-FC Porto match where there was a challenge worthy of a red card and Tiago Martins showed a yellow. VAR called him and Tiago Martins kept the yellow. I have no doubt that he made the decision because he was influenced,” said Varandas, in an interview with Sporting TV.

“The Regulation is clear: under the combination of the two indicated provisions, only the use of expressions, drawings, gestures, or writings that are insulting, defamatory, or gross and that target one of the persons or entities indicated there, including referees, is punishable. […] Everyone has the right to freely express and disseminate their thoughts by word, image, or any other means, as well as the right to inform, to be informed, and to receive information, without hindrance or discrimination,” reads the CAS ruling.

Varandas criticized FC Porto’s communication strategy, claiming that it had influenced referee Tiago Martins in the aforementioned match, but the CAS did not consider that the Sporting president’s words constituted an accusation that the alleged refereeing error had been an attempt to benefit the Dragons.

The CAS notes that “only the use of expressions, drawings, gestures, or writings that are insulting, defamatory, or gross and that target one of the persons or entities indicated there, including referees, is punishable.”

The court adds that the president of the “Lions,” who has already served the punishment, “criticizes the analysis made by referee Tiago Martins” in a specific incident in the Nacional – FC Porto match, and that “it is also clear that he did so in order to also criticize Futebol Clube do Porto, considering that this club, with its communication strategy, aimed to influence the freedom of action of referees, and, specifically, referee Tiago Martins.”

“The statements of the Claimant [Frederico Varandas] are, in the Court’s view, similar to those he criticizes, that is, they aimed to influence the actions of those whose role is to referee competitions. However, the Claimant is not being convicted for having acted in this way,” the ruling reads.

The CAS does not recognize in Varandas’s statements “any accusation of an attempt to benefit Futebol Clube do Porto” and declares that “it is not understandable how such a statement could be considered defamatory or even gross with respect to referee Tiago Martins.”

The body also emphasizes that the Portuguese Football Federation itself, through the vice-president of the Refereeing Council, admitted that “the referee in question, with the elements at his disposal and the alert he received from VAR, had all the conditions to decide correctly, which, in the FPF’s view, he did not.”

“Now, in this context, it is unequivocal, in our view, that there is nothing potentially defamatory or gross in the Claimant’s statements,” the CAS notes, adding that Judge Miguel Eduardo Teixeira Navarro de Castro voted against this decision.

The CAS also issued another ruling related to Sporting, regarding the misbehavior of fans at the Estrela da Amadora-Sporting match (aggressive acts and damage to the protective net), annulling a fine of €19,510.

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