29/12/04 Luís Campos, previously of Gil Vicente and Vitóriua de Setúbal, among others, is the new coach of Beira-Mar. 28/12/04
Czech coach Jozef Chovanec has done an about-face with respect to the coaching job at Beira-Mar. Although a contract had not actually been signed, he was fully expected to arrive over Christmas to take the
reins of the team left by Manuel Cajuda. However, his non-appearance has caused the Beira-Mar board to officially dispense with his services, as well as those of his assistant coach, the Bulgarian Mladenov, who
did turn up on time but whom the board did not think it wise to invite to carry out the functions of main coach. The club is set to announce a new coach Tuesday. 24/12/04 Nelo Vingada
has been named to replace João Carlos Pereira, sacked this week from Académica. Vingada has spent a successful spell recently at Zamalek of Egypt. 23/12/04 The Minister of Finance
, Bagão Félix, a former director of Benfica, said Wednesday that action will be taken to force clubs to pay their tax and social security debts, a total of around 20 million euros. The Minister pointed
out that it was not on that clubs could be preparing to buy players during the transfer window in January while these debts are still outstanding, and he warned that measures taken to force payment could include the
seizing of players' passes. Benfica are hoping that they will enter the Guiness Book of Records for the number of Father Christmases
gathered in one place. With the help of Coca Cola and Sicasal (a company of cold meats), 12,352 Santas
were in the stands at Benfica's home game against Penafiel Saturday. The previous record had been fewer than three thousand. The club is waiting for confirmation from the Guinness judges. 22/12/04 João Carlos Pereira is the latest coach to lose his job in the SuperLiga. His Académica, one of the Portugese históricos, are currently second from bottom with only
three wins out of fifteen. Meanwhile, Beira-Mar have announced who will replace coach Manuel Cajuda, who rescinded last week. In fact they have appointed two coaches: Josef Chovanec
(Czech) and Stoycho Mladenov (Bulgarian). President Mano Nunes
has promised a clear out of the squad during the transfer window, and also promised that he would resign if the team didn't come above tenth in the SuperLiga. They are currently third from bottom, five points adrift of tenth place.
Deco of was seventh in the FIFA World Player rankings announced Monday. The trophy was won by Deco' teammate at Barcelona, the Brazilian Ronaldinho. Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United and
Luís Figo of Real Madrid were the other Portugese on the list, 13th and 15th respectively. When Santos were crowned Brasileirão
Champions at the weekend, three players playing for Portuguese clubs were particularly happy as they had been a part of the campaign earlier in the season before transferring to Portugal. They were Diego
of FC Porto and Paulo Almeida and Alcides of Benfica. The last day of thr Brasileirão also saw the retirement of an old favourite from Benfica, the former Brazilian international Valdo
. The midfielder, 40 (!), helped his side Botafogo avoid relegation. "One day I'm going to coach Benfica," he told A Bola. He will retire to Portugal. 18/12/04 Portugal has nine players and one coach in the 60
on UEFA's short list to be voted the top in Europe in 2004 (www.uefa.com
), [apart from players of other nationalities who are currently playing in
Portugal]:Goalkeeper: Vítor Baía (FC Porto)
Right back: Miguel (Benfica), Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea) [and Seitaridis (FC Porto)]
Central defender:
Jorge Andrade (Dep. Coruña), Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)
Left back: [Fyssas (Benfica)]
Right midfield: Figo (Real Madrid), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Central midfield:
Maniche (FC Porto)
Offensive midfield: Deco (Barcelona)
Coach: José Mourinho (Chelsea) José Eduardo Simões beat Maló de Abreu to become president of struggling SuperLiga club
Académica Friday, succeeding João Moreno, who died in October. Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, president of FC Porto, has seen his recently published autobiography selling like hotcakes.
'Long Days are a Hundred Years Long' has sold 50,000 copies in Portugal in a matter of weeks and has now been translated into English. The Portuguese Football Federation
announced Friday the Portuguese referees and linesmen recognised by FIFA for 2005: Referees:
Lucílio Baptista / Paulo Costa / António Costa / Paulo Paraty / Olegário Benquerença / Pedro Proença / João Ferreira / Duarte Gomes / Bruno PaixãoLinesmen:
Paulo Januário / José Cardinal / Devesa Neto / António Perdigão / Bertino Miranda / Serafim Nogueira / José Ramalho / João Santos / Sérgio Lacroix Benfica's recent performances have not pleased their
demanding fans, and there was abuse hurled at the players by onlookers Thursday during their training session at the National Stadium. 16/12/04 Beira-Mar coach
Manuel Cajuda has rescinded amicably with the club. He took over from Mick Wadsworth two months ago, but the team's record has been a poor one: won one, drawn four and lost five. The goalkeeping coach
Paulino Silva will take over as caretaker. 14/12/04 There were five Portuguese players in the final classification for France Football's Golden Ball
for the best player in Europe, which went to Andriy Shevchenko (AC Milan) of the Ukraine. Deco (FC Porto/Barcelona) was second with 139 points behind Shevchenko's 175. Ricardo Carvalho
was 9th with 18, Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United) 12th equal with 11, Luís Figo (Real Madrid) 22nd with 4 and Maniche (FC Porto) 24th wth 2. There were hundreds of FC Porto
fans at the airport Monday to welcome their team back from their triumphant visit to Japan at the weekend. Maniche, named Man of the Match
and presented afterwards with a gigantic key, which was for a Japanese make of car, will donate it or its value to charity. Young Brazilian midfielder Diego
was sent off during the penalty shoot out for 'provocative' conduct when he went up to Once 'keeper Henao and exchanged words, a throwback to the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores
when Once knocked out Diego's then club Santos. Diego will miss FC Porto's first game in the knock-out stage of the Champions League in February of next year. Vítor Baía
will undergo tests to ascertain the true extent of the problem that caused him to collapse and be substituted by Nuno during extra time of Sunday's Intercontinetal Cup Final against Once Caldas
in Yokohama, Japan. The ´keeper's collapse was put down to tachycardia. 12/12/04 FC Porto won their second Intercontinental Cup
Sunday (their first was in 1987 against Peñarol of Uruguay) when they beat Colombian side Once Caldas 8-7
on penalties. After 120 minutes, the scoresheet was blank, but not because Porto didn't try. They hit the bar four times, and Benni McCarthy had two goals disallowed for offside, the first marginal, the second definitely not.
From the outset, it was clear that Once were only interested in defending, and their counter-attacks were ineffectual. It's not hard to imagine that they did in fact have their eye on the penalty shoot-out
throughout, banking on the excellent ´keeper Henao
to be their match-winner. It didn't work like that. Neither 'keeper (Nuno in the other goal, on in the first period of extra time for a mysteriously injured Baía) saved a penalty, but in the first series of ten,
Maniche (official Man of the Match) and Fabbro both hit the woodwork. Then Garcia lofted one over the bar in the sudden death phase, and Pedro Emanuel
stepped up to stroke the winner past a disconsolate Henao. The only team that had played to win had won, and justice was done. The teams lined up: FC Porto:
Vítor Baía (Nuno) Seitaridis, Jorge Costa, Pedro Emanuel, Ricardo Costa; Costinha, Diego, Maniche, Derlei (Caros Alberto), McCarthy, Luís Fabiano (Quaresma). Once Caldas:
Henao, Rojas, Cambindo (Cataño), Vanegas, Garcia, Velasquez, Fabbro, Viafara, Soto (Alcazar), Arango (Diaz), De Nigris. 08/12/04 While FC Porto were triumphantly qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League Tuesday, their president,
Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, was being questioned in Gondomar, near Porto, on suspicion of various counts of corruption. He left the court just as Porto were clinching qualification with a 2-1 win over
Chelsea, but his satisfaction at the result will have been tempered by the charges he is now facing, including: corruption in sport and involvement in forgery of documents. He was freed on
bail of 125,000 euros and will be allowed to travel with the team to Japan for the Intercontinental Cup Final against Once Caldas at the weekend. 07/12/04 Paulo Diogo
, a Portuguese emigrant playing for Swiss club Servette, had a finger amputated Sunday after he caught it in a fence during the celebration of his team's 4-1 win over Shafthausen. 04/12/04
FC Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa
has been questioned by the Portuguese fraud squad with respect to a possible involvement in corruption within the game. The so-called 'Golden Whistle' affair is an on-going investigation by the authorities into possible bribery of referees, among other offences. Also questioned this time around were two referees,
Augusto Duarte and Jacinto Paixão, and an agent, António Araújo, who has worked closely with FC Porto to bring some Brazilian players to the club. The Apito Dourado
scandal hit the headlines first eight months ago with the arrest of the then president of the Liga and former Boavista president Valentim Loureiro. Saturday saw the launch of
Pinto da Costa's autobiography Largos Dia Têm Cem Anos ('Long days are a hundred years long') at FC Porto's Estadio do Dragão. 01/12/04 Portugal lost 1-3 to eternal rivals
Spain Wednesday to go out of the Futsal World Cup taking place in Taiwan. FC Porto dropped two places in the IFFHS ranking of top clubs in the world for the month of October. They are now
15th in a list topped by Spanish club Valencia. Deco and Benni McCarthy
both scored in the 'game against AIDS', played in Barcelona Tuesday. For the record, Barcelona beat an All-Stars team 4-3. |
