31/08/04 Estrela da Amadora played their away game at Ovarense in the Liga de Honra
(second division) Sunday with just one substitute on the bench after a bureaucratic oversight. 27/08/04 Former FC Porto
(now Barcelona) midfielder and Portuguese international Deco was named European Player of the Year by UEFA Thursday. He was also named best midfielder, Vítor Baía best goalkeeper and
Ricardo Carvalho (now at Chelsea) best defender. FPF president Gilberto Madaíl picked a special award for Portugal's excellent organisation of Euro 2004. 24/08/04 Estoril
Praia have parted company with coach Ulisses Morais. Morais, who brought Estoril back to the Superliga
after a ten-year hiatus, is the second coach to go before the season has even got under way, the first being Luigi del Neri at Porto. Assistant coach Litos will take over at Estoril, at least for the time being.
Académica
may be without a fixed stadium for up to four months, according to experts who have studied the pitch of the Coimbra Municipal Stadium (used at Euro 2004). The grass has apparently been destroyed by a fungus (as was evident during the weekend's Supertaça game between Benfica and FC Porto) and needs time to be treated.
22/08/04 Benfica will open up the Estádio da Luz
to visitors as from Monday. Times of visits, on weekdays, are 10.00, 11, 12, 15 16 and 17, except when there are closed training sessions and on match days. Benfica midfielder Manuel Fernandes, 18, has
renewed his contract with the club until 2010. 21/08/04 FC Porto won their first trophy of the season Friday, beating arch rivals Benfica 1-0 in the SuperTaça
(the winners of the Championship versus the winners of the Cup last season) at the Municipal Stadium in Coimbra in front of 22,000. Benfica had the better of the first half but failed to capitalise on chances created, whereas Porto shaded the second half and took advantage of their best chance on 56 minutes,
Quaresma latching onto an exquisite through ball from Carlos Alberto, leaving Argel for dead with a shimmy and rifling his shot past Quim. A factor in the less than fluid football on show was the appalling
state of the pitch, incredible given that a matter of weeks ago this stadium was a venue at Euro 2004. It looked like no one had bothered with it since then, with great swathes of bare ground where grass should be.
In fact the Football Federation had suggested beforehand that the match might be postponed or shifted to another venue, but both clubs agreed to go ahead with the game. The teams lined up:
FC Porto:
Vítor Baía, Seitaridis, Ricardo Costa, Pedro Emanuel, Nuno Valente, Costinha, Hugo Leal, Diego (César Peixoto, 22), Ricardo Quaresma (Bosingwa, 61), Carlos Alberto, McCarthy (Hélder Postiga, 77).
Benfica:
Quim, Miguel, Luisão, Argel, Dos Santos, Paulo Almeida (Bruno Aguiar, 66), Petit, João Pereira (Everson, 85), Zahovic (Karadas, 60), Simão, Sokota. 18/08/04 Luigi
del Neri, sacked recently by FC Porto, spoke to the Italian press Tuesday about his bitterness at the way he was treated by the club and vowed to claim all the money that he is entitled to from the dismissal.
He said that his removal was a result of Porto's fear of change after previous coach Mourinho's success over the last two seasons. Boavista midfielder Toñito
was verbally and physically attacked by two individuals Tuesday as he left the Bessa after training. The Spaniard was the perpetrator of a dangerous tackle in Sunday's 'friendly' with FC Porto
that has put FC Porto forward Derlei out of action for around a month. The two attackers are thought to have been Porto fans. Luís Pedrosa, former Sporting and Boavista midfielder, has taken over from
Norton de Matos as Salgueiros coach. The club was recenlty demoted from the Liga de Honra to the Segunda B for an unpaid debt to the Liga dos Clubes. 17/08/04
FC Porto striker Derlei is likely to be out for up to three weeks following the bad-tempered 'friendly' against Boavista
Sunday. In a dispiuted ball with Boavista's Toñito, Derlei twisted his knee and will miss Friday's Portuguese SuperTaça
against Benfica and the European SuperCup against Valencia, as well as possibly the first games of the SuperLiga. 14/08/04
It was over eight years ago, precisely on 18 May 1996, that Rui Mendes, a Sporting fan, was killed at the Taça de Portugal Final between Sporting and Benfica
at the National stadium near Lisbon. Mendes was hit in the chest by a very light
fired from the opposite end of the stadium by a Benfica fan, Hugo Inácio, now on the run after disappearing during leave from prison. It has taken that long for the Football Federation to finally cough up the compensation awarded to Mendes' widow - over 300,000 euros. The award was appealed by the FPF, who considered that the responsibility for security at the game belonged to the police, but the Appeal Court found for the family. The money was paid up Friday.
10/08/04 Victor Fernandez is the new coach at FC Porto. The Spaniard will be presented to the fans on Wednesday at the friendly with Panathinaikos. The Spaniard was
previously at Celta and Bétis. He was coach at Celta when they beat Benifca 7-0 in an infamous UEFA Cup game from 1989, when Jupp Heynckes was coach at Benfica. The contract is (in theory ...) for two years.
FC Porto have justified the sacking of Italian coach Luigi del Neri, saying that he was in a trial period and that his training methodology and tactics were inadequate for the club. Meanwhile, del Neri
appears to one of those under suspicion in Italy in the context of the betting scandal going on there. 09/08/04 The Italian sports press is suggesting it was a conspiracy that forced coach
Luigi del Neri to leave FC Porto. According to them, president Pinto da Costa was influenced to sack del Neri afterpressure from the players, notably captains Jorge Costa and Vítor Baaía.
08/08/04 FC Porto's squad for the coming season was presented to 47,000 fans at the club's Estádio do Dragão Saturday. The only surprise of the night was the presentation of
midfilder Hugo Leal, who recently rescinded with Paris St. Germain. Porto have still to name a successor to Luigi del Neri, sacked in the early hours of Saturday morning. Brazilian Wanderlei Luxemburgo
has declined an invitation from the club, sayig that he is committed to Santos. 07/08/04 (II) FC Porto have sacked Italian coach Luigi del Neri
before the season proper has begun. Del Neri took two days off late in the week but was expected back from Italy Friday to take training and have an important meeting with president Pinto da Costa
to dicuss players to be released, but he didn't arrive till the early hours of Saturday morning, and after meetings at the club, he was told that his services were no longer required. He had a contract until 2007.
07/08/04 Benfica's Angolan striker Pedro Mantorras, who had seemed to be on the road to recovery from a prolonged knee injury, underwent surgery again Friday on his right knee. The
Catalan surgeon Dugat would not say how long this phase of Mantorras' recovery would take. Sporting's vice-captain, the central defender Beto, has also undergone knee surgery and will be out for up to
five weeks. FC Porto's new coach Luigi del Neri
was late for training Friday, which raised a few eyebrows at the normally highly disciplined club. Porto's results and performances under Del Neri, especially in the wake of José Mourinho's exploits last season, have also been criticised, which could lead to some problems for the Italian in the coming weeks as the new season gets under way.
Liga de Honra side Felgueiras
are in a tight spot: either they find 300,000 euros within the next two weeks to pay their playing staff or they will close down. The club has set up a kiosk in the centre of the town to take contributions from local fans to help towards the bill ... but unfortunately, this has not been a great success: in three days, they have raised just ... 13 euros.
This year's SuperTaça, between FC Porto and Benfica, will be played at the Municipal Stadium in Coimbra on 20 July. 04/07/04 FC Porto are the sixth best club side in the world, according to the IFFHS. The top ten
are 1. Celtic, Scotland
2. São Paulo, Brazil
3. Valência, Spain
4. AC Milan, Italy
5. Real Madrid, Spain
6. FC Porto, Portugal
7. Manchester United, England
8. Chelsea, England
9. Arsenal, England
10. = Santos, Brazil
Boca Juniors, Argentina 02/07/04 Benfica's new coach Giovanni Trapattoni interviewed on the official UEFA site . |
