Porto hit out at refereeing favouring Sporting in the Azores | OneFootball

FC Porto issued a statement following the controversial refereeing in the Santa Clara vs. Sporting match.

“After another week marked by controversy and incomprehensible decisions that compromise the sporting truth of the competitions and contribute to the increasing loss of confidence among institutions, clubs, and fans in the refereeing sector, FC Porto offers the following reflections:

1. The last elections for the Portuguese Football Federation were accompanied by the promise of an evolutionary renewal in the area of refereeing, particularly in terms of programmatic lines and respective reforms. The assessment of this almost first year of the term of the federative refereeing bodies is disappointing, with this sector today being the main responsible for the instability experienced in Portuguese football and the one that, repeatedly and continuously, has been a source of disruption in the normal course of the current sports season.

2. The President of the Portuguese Football Federation, Pedro Proença, is required, given his recognized past as a top-level referee, to conduct a deep reflection and adopt urgent measures regarding the functioning of refereeing in Portugal, as well as the performance of several of his choices to lead this sector, namely the President of the Refereeing Council, Luciano Gonçalves, and the National Technical Director of Refereeing, Duarte Gomes.

3. Over the past few months, FC Porto has carefully, through various means, exposed to the President of the Portuguese Football Federation and the President of the Refereeing Council its growing concerns regarding the operational model followed by the current Refereeing Council, whose dual leadership has contributed nothing to the serene functioning of the refereeing sector. The disastrous communication policy followed by the current Refereeing Council, the glaring lack of consistency in the criteria for evaluating similar incidents, the insistence on validating obvious errors, and a model of grading whose relationship with merit criteria and impact on subsequent appointments are not properly clarified are, in FC Porto's opinion, likely to sow doubts, discord, and technical instability among refereeing teams, with a special focus on video refereeing, whose criteria for analysis and decision-making remain unclear and have caused harm on the fields, week after week. The result is an erratic, non-transparent, and deeply destabilizing system for those who, weekly, have the responsibility to make decisions within the four lines.

4. Still on the topic of the communication policy of the Refereeing Council, FC Porto recently questioned the President of the Portuguese Football Federation and the President of the Refereeing Council about the composition of the current Non-Permanent Refereeing Commission of the institution, led by the National Technical Director, Duarte Gomes. In particular, clarifications were requested regarding the reasons why this commission includes several refereeing commentators linked to media outlets and only one representative from professional football clubs, as well as doubts related to the nature of these individuals' ties to the Portuguese Football Federation. The question arises as to whether the continuous exercise of commentary on refereeing in media outlets, combined with the exercise of technical or advisory functions in the FPF's refereeing sphere, aligns with the principles of credibility, objectivity, and confidentiality that derive from the applicable regulations. In FC Porto's view, the position of influence that these members appear to have within the commissions, coupled with the public echo of their opinions and their direct association with the Portuguese Football Federation, exposes refereeing teams in future decision-making and in the standardization of their criteria, being likely to continue degrading the public perception of the system's impartiality and the integrity of the competitions. This Non-Permanent Refereeing Commission includes Marco Pina, Pedro Henriques, Jorge Faustino, Carlos Carvalho, and Patrícia Silva Lopes from Sporting Clube de Portugal.

5. Last week, much was said about new steps of “transparency” in refereeing, regarding the innovative “bodycams.” Although, as was visible yesterday, the benefits are limited to television cosmetics – showing a referee standing for 12 minutes in the center of the field waiting for a VAR decision – it might be more appropriate, in the name of the much-touted transparency, to definitively resolve crucial issues for Portuguese football, such as the standardization of VAR technology in all Portuguese stadiums, the implementation of goal-line technology and semi-automatic offside, as well as the immediate availability of VAR audio. FC Porto has been advocating for this standardization and investment for over a year and has not found, either in the Portuguese Football Federation or in Liga Portugal, the necessary momentum for the rapid and urgent implementation of these technologies.

It is crucial for the credibility of Portuguese football that this season is decided exclusively by the protagonists on the field, and it is imperative that situations like the one experienced yesterday in the Azores do not repeat on Portuguese pitches.

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