Villas-Boas: One day the Lisbon derby will end with 3 points each | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas vehemently accused the opponents and Liga Portugal regarding the scheduling, arguing that FC Porto was disadvantaged. The president of the Dragons recalled the match in Arouca to justify his outrage. All this and more can be read in his opinion article in the Dragões magazine titled: “Stronger than the traps.”

“Incredibly, and against a 2-6 vote, FC Porto is forced to play on Monday, December 15, against Estrela da Amadora, on Thursday, the 18th, against FC Famalicão for the Portuguese Cup, and again on Monday, the 22nd, against Alverca. All normal, the reader might say, if it weren’t for the fact that Sporting managed to convince the others present to get two additional days of rest beforehand: they play on Saturday, December 13, on Thursday, the 18th for the Cup, and get another additional day of rest afterwards, as they only play again on Tuesday, the 23rd. Is this the fairness promoted by the League after the infamous episode with the scheduling of the match in Arouca? A way of acting where the same club is always harmed and where the holy alliances are shamelessly revealed. We might even see the Lisbon derby end with 3 points for each,” said the leader of the Dragons, believing that this is “yet another episode that clearly reflects the waves of alignment that try to divert” FC Porto from its “path.”

Read the full opinion article:

“FC Porto faces a demanding moment, but also one full of opportunities to reinforce its position as the leading reference in sport and Portuguese football, in particular. We approach the future maintaining the conviction that continuous work, combined with a rigorous and realistic Club strategy, will lead us to new cycles of success.

One of our most ambitious structural projects is the construction of the High Performance Center (CAR) in Olival, a fundamental investment for the future of FC Porto, long desired, with its strategic importance well recognized. This infrastructure, adjacent to the Jorge Costa Training and Sports Development Center, will occupy about 31 hectares, include five training fields, a hotel/residence to serve professional athletes, a mini-stadium, and other top-notch support facilities, adapted for high-performance training and the comprehensive development of the main team athletes, in an environment that allows them to evolve both technically and as individuals, immersed in the values of a world-class club. We count on the decisive support of the community that welcomes us, led by a new municipal executive with whom we recently met, who also believes that this infrastructure is fundamental for the social and sporting growth of the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia and for further development of the Olival parish.

At the same time, in Campanhã, we will move forward with the launch of the construction of the new pavilion, which will be installed on the grounds of the now deactivated Ramalho Ortigão School, granted for 70 years by the Porto City Council. A historic step towards valuing our eclecticism. This multi-sports pavilion will be a crucial space for the development of an integrated sports hub for the club’s sports and training activities, allowing us to adequately respond to the growing needs of our teams and support the expansion of women’s sports and other modalities, such as futsal, which took its first steps this season. It is also a great source of pride the institutional collaboration we have maintained with the Porto City Council, a committed and responsible partner in supporting this project, contributing to the dynamism and enhancement of sport in the city.

These works reflect not only our sporting ambition, but also FC Porto’s commitment to the social, cultural, and economic development of the regions where it operates, giving ongoing meaning to the Public Utility Status that the Portuguese State recognized in us almost 100 years ago, in 1928, which continues to be honored, and to the distinctions of Honorary Member of the Order of Prince Henry and Honorary Member of the Order of Merit, which we later received for the undeniable relevance we have played in the development of the country and in our connection to our diaspora.

Along these lines, the FC Porto Houses, in Portugal and around the world, which, thanks to the entrepreneurship of their members, make a difference in their communities, have been decisive in the growth of our membership base due to the dynamism they bring to these regions at the associative, sporting, and social level. Recently, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the FC Porto House in Vale de Cambra, a historic milestone for the Vale de Cambra Porto fans, an example of dynamism, in a land that has already given us many athletes and among whom we honor the late Rui Filipe.

To conclude, I could not fail to say a few words about the recent events that have marked national football. Events that have led us to take tough positions, both publicly and with the agents and bodies responsible for ensuring that the football industry in our country operates within high and demanding standards.

In this sense, we recently met with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation and with the president of the Refereeing Council, reinforcing our request to quickly ensure greater uniformity of refereeing criteria, the implementation of professionalization in this sector, greater consistency in the application of meritocracy criteria in appointments for games of greater complexity, and, again, the correct operationalization of VAR technology functionalities, operating at the maximum of its capabilities, standardizing the number and quality of cameras in all stadiums of the Professional Leagues. Without singling out and always admitting that realities are dynamic and require continuous improvements and adaptations, our indignation takes on other proportions in the face of continued attempts to disguise the evident weaknesses of the refereeing system in Portugal.

Curiously, these weaknesses go unnoticed by the “refereeing analysts” who are present daily in different media, where they only dedicate themselves to authentic brainwashing of public opinion. What is evident to the eyes of any neutral football fan too often gains new and fanciful interpretations in the eyes of the ‘specialists’ who seem to have shamelessly lost all sense of embarrassment. The “interpretations of the regulations” and the “approaches and criteria” surpass the “decision-support technologies,” making the latest analyses full of jargon such as “English-style refereeing,” “gray area incident,” “borderline line,” and “orange yellows,” always benefiting situations where our direct rivals are inadvertently favored.

To all this is added yet another episode that clearly reflects the waves of alignment that try to divert us from our path. Incredibly, and against a 2-6 vote, FC Porto is forced to play on Monday, December 15, against Estrela da Amadora, on Thursday, the 18th, against FC Famalicão for the Portuguese Cup, and again on Monday, the 22nd, against Alverca. All normal, the reader might say, if it weren’t for the fact that Sporting managed to convince the others present to get two additional days of rest beforehand: they play on Saturday, December 13, on Thursday, the 18th for the Cup, and get another additional day of rest afterwards, as they only play again on Tuesday, the 23rd. Is this the fairness promoted by the League after the infamous episode with the scheduling of the match in Arouca? A way of acting where the same club is always harmed and where the holy alliances are shamelessly revealed. We might even see the Lisbon derby end with 3 points for each.

It is for these reasons and more that the work, dedication, and effort of FC Porto must always be superior to the rest and, in this regard, our team has been tireless: we completed a victorious cycle in November and are already fully focused on the crucial cycle of December. We could not be prouder of this team and the support they have felt from our Members and fans, to whom we are deeply grateful.

We march on strong, focused on the title, knowing in advance that there will be many traps.”

“FC Porto faces a demanding moment, but also one full of opportunities to reinforce its position as the leading reference in sport and Portuguese football, in particular. We approach the future maintaining the conviction that continuous work, combined with a rigorous and realistic Club strategy, will lead us to new cycles of success.

One of our most ambitious structural projects is the construction of the High Performance Center (CAR) in Olival, a fundamental investment for the future of FC Porto, long desired, with its strategic importance well recognized. This infrastructure, adjacent to the Jorge Costa Training and Sports Development Center, will occupy about 31 hectares, include five training fields, a hotel/residence to serve professional athletes, a mini-stadium, and other top-notch support facilities, adapted for high-performance training and the comprehensive development of the main team athletes, in an environment that allows them to evolve both technically and as individuals, immersed in the values of a world-class club. We count on the decisive support of the community that welcomes us, led by a new municipal executive with whom we recently met, who also believes that this infrastructure is fundamental for the social and sporting growth of the municipality of Vila Nova de Gaia and for further development of the Olival parish.

At the same time, in Campanhã, we will move forward with the launch of the construction of the new pavilion, which will be installed on the grounds of the now deactivated Ramalho Ortigão School, granted for 70 years by the Porto City Council. A historic step towards valuing our eclecticism. This multi-sports pavilion will be a crucial space for the development of an integrated sports hub for the club’s sports and training activities, allowing us to adequately respond to the growing needs of our teams and support the expansion of women’s sports and other modalities, such as futsal, which took its first steps this season. It is also a great source of pride the institutional collaboration we have maintained with the Porto City Council, a committed and responsible partner in supporting this project, contributing to the dynamism and enhancement of sport in the city.

These works reflect not only our sporting ambition, but also FC Porto’s commitment to the social, cultural, and economic development of the regions where it operates, giving ongoing meaning to the Public Utility Status that the Portuguese State recognized in us almost 100 years ago, in 1928, which continues to be honored, and to the distinctions of Honorary Member of the Order of Prince Henry and Honorary Member of the Order of Merit, which we later received for the undeniable relevance we have played in the development of the country and in our connection to our diaspora.

Along these lines, the FC Porto Houses, in Portugal and around the world, which, thanks to the entrepreneurship of their members, make a difference in their communities, have been decisive in the growth of our membership base due to the dynamism they bring to these regions at the associative, sporting, and social level. Recently, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the FC Porto House in Vale de Cambra, a historic milestone for the Vale de Cambra Porto fans, an example of dynamism, in a land that has already given us many athletes and among whom we honor the late Rui Filipe.

To conclude, I could not fail to say a few words about the recent events that have marked national football. Events that have led us to take tough positions, both publicly and with the agents and bodies responsible for ensuring that the football industry in our country operates within high and demanding standards.

In this sense, we recently met with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation and with the president of the Refereeing Council, reinforcing our request to quickly ensure greater uniformity of refereeing criteria, the implementation of professionalization in this sector, greater consistency in the application of meritocracy criteria in appointments for games of greater complexity, and, again, the correct operationalization of VAR technology functionalities, operating at the maximum of its capabilities, standardizing the number and quality of cameras in all stadiums of the Professional Leagues. Without singling out and always admitting that realities are dynamic and require continuous improvements and adaptations, our indignation takes on other proportions in the face of continued attempts to disguise the evident weaknesses of the refereeing system in Portugal.

Curiously, these weaknesses go unnoticed by the “refereeing analysts” who are present daily in different media, where they only dedicate themselves to authentic brainwashing of public opinion. What is evident to the eyes of any neutral football fan too often gains new and fanciful interpretations in the eyes of the ‘specialists’ who seem to have shamelessly lost all sense of embarrassment. The “interpretations of the regulations” and the “approaches and criteria” surpass the “decision-support technologies,” making the latest analyses full of jargon such as “English-style refereeing,” “gray area incident,” “borderline line,” and “orange yellows,” always benefiting situations where our direct rivals are inadvertently favored.

To all this is added yet another episode that clearly reflects the waves of alignment that try to divert us from our path. Incredibly, and against a 2-6 vote, FC Porto is forced to play on Monday, December 15, against Estrela da Amadora, on Thursday, the 18th, against FC Famalicão for the Portuguese Cup, and again on Monday, the 22nd, against Alverca. All normal, the reader might say, if it weren’t for the fact that Sporting managed to convince the others present to get two additional days of rest beforehand: they play on Saturday, December 13, on Thursday, the 18th for the Cup, and get another additional day of rest afterwards, as they only play again on Tuesday, the 23rd. Is this the fairness promoted by the League after the infamous episode with the scheduling of the match in Arouca? A way of acting where the same club is always harmed and where the holy alliances are shamelessly revealed. We might even see the Lisbon derby end with 3 points for each.

It is for these reasons and more that the work, dedication, and effort of FC Porto must always be superior to the rest and, in this regard, our team has been tireless: we completed a victorious cycle in November and are already fully focused on the crucial cycle of December. We could not be prouder of this team and the support they have felt from our Members and fans, to whom we are deeply grateful.

We march on strong, focused on the title, knowing in advance that there will be many traps.”

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