Marta Soares slams Sporting rival: Worse than Inácio's challenge | OneFootball

Jaime Marta Soares spoke exclusively to our newspaper about the current situation of Sporting, addressing several sensitive topics: refereeing in Portuguese football, the wave of injuries affecting the squad, and the role of Rui Borges. The former president of the General Assembly of the Lions also admits to believing in winning the title "as long as it is mathematically possible."

However, the former leader began by pointing out clear inconsistencies in refereeing criteria, particularly in the expulsion of Gonçalo Inácio against Gil Vicente and the yellow card to Jan Bednarek in the Santa Clara - Porto match: "The central defender of Porto commits exactly the same foul as Gonçalo Inácio, or worse, and was not expelled. This serves as a comparative term to see the intellectual dishonesty of the referees that are effectively rampant today in Portuguese football," he begins by saying.

Jaime Marta Soares then focused on the wave of injuries, highlighting that the season's planning was not well done: "Sporting could be having a much better season if they didn't rest on their laurels, that is, if they had paid attention to the fact that the squad is very short and that, for certain types of situations, it becomes vulnerable. People, instead of worrying about raising a set of situations that only create wars between clubs, should be more careful, because this ends up creating problems among the members and fans themselves. Leaders should be careful about what they say, when they say it, and why they say it, but above all, about what they shouldn't say."

Despite the points disadvantage to Porto, Jaime Marta Soares remains hopeful for winning the championship: "If I didn't believe, I wouldn't be a Lion, I wouldn't be a Sporting fan. I believe until the last moment, as long as it is mathematically possible, that Sporting can become champions."

When questioned about Rui Borges's work, the former leader acknowledged human qualities but spoke of the coach's limitations to lead a club of Sporting's size: "He is an excellent person, an honest professional, with knowledge, but I don't think he has the stature to coach a club with the demands of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It's not because he won that he's great, and it's not because he loses that he's no good. It's an opinion I've had from the very beginning," he concludes.

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