28/02/04 Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Benfica for short, blow out 100 candles Saturday. 27/02/04 Vitória de Guimarães
have had their ground banned for two matches after incidents at the end of the recent Vitória v Boavista SuperLiga match. 24/02/04 The official UEFA website will be holding a Q&A
session with the legendary Eusébio on Thursday, just hours before his beloved Benfica meet Rosenborg in the UEFA Cup. See here. 20/02/04 Disgraced former president of Benfica, João Vale e Azevedo, was released
from prison Thursday but promptly re-arrested. He was in prison because of irregularities to do with the transfers of Russian 'keeepr Ovchinikov
in and out of the club, and re-arrested due to other irregularities to do with the sale of land near the Benfica stadium to a real estate company. FC Porto's South Af rican striker Benni McCarthy
was apparently caught out on the town late at night and forced by the club to train with the 'B' Team Wednesday as punishment. The player will still be in the side to face Vitória de Guimarães
at the weekend, however. 19/02/04 The Portuguese Football Federation has been told by the courts to pay 235,000 euros to the family of Rui Mendes
, killed by a very light at the 1996 Taça de Portugal Final between Sporting and Benfica. the Federation is to appeal, claiming that they did everything in their power to ensure that the
venue was safe, and transferring responsibility for safety problems to the police. Benfica are set to issue debentures to the value of 15 million euros n March to get over immediate cash problems.
April will see the start of a new show on Portuguese television: 'Soccastars'. Selection begins at the beginning of March for the show that will involve both young women and men who will try to prove their skills
and win a year's trial at Sporting (for the men) and a scholarship to an American university (for the women). The coach for the 'course' will be former Benfica centre-back Carlos Mozer, with former Portuguese
international Paulo Sousa in charge of the Académia. Former FC Porto great Fernando Gomes
will be a member of the jury. while the initial tests will be made according to the FIFA-accredited 'soccaskills' system, devised by ex-Liverpool player Craig Johnston. 18/02/04 FC Porto
will after all be replacing the turf at their Estádio do Dragão, this after months of waiting, fruitlessly, for the current pitch to take root. The company laying the new turf believe it could be ready by
the weekend's game versus Vitória de Guimarães. The replacement will also come in time for the reception of Manchester United in the Champions' League at the end of the month. The Lisbon City Council
voted Tuesday to exempt the stadiums of Benfica and Sporting from Municipal Tax, on the basis that the stadiums are a local utility. The Mayor of Lisbon is Pedro Santana Lopes, a former
president of Sporting. 12/02/04 Sporting are considering suing FC Porto coach José Mourinho, and the club's president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa
for supporting him, after the coach allegedly ripped the Sporting shirt (the club's emblem and therefore, in footballing terms, sacrosanct) following the recent Sporting v Porto SuperLiga
game. Mourinho also, it is alleged, wished that Sporting full-back Rui Jorge would die on the pitch, this a week after Benfica's Miklós Fehér actually did. Former Sporting player and coach Manuel Fernandes
has take the reigns at Liga de Honra side Penafiel. 06/02/04 Thje controversy is growing in the aftermath of the Sporting v FC Porto Superliga
game of last Saturday. After the match, Porto coach José Mourinho allegedly ripped the shirt of Sporting full back Rui Jorge
when the kit-man was trying to exchange it for Vitór Baía's jersey by the Porto changing room, and he is allso alledged to have said that he wished Rui Jorge would die on the pitch. Mourinho was angry about losing
two points and at what he saw as a lack of sportsmanship by some of the Sporting players, especially Rui Jorge, who took a quick throw-in after an injury to João Pinto and caught out the Porto defence, from which a
penalty ensued, and Liedson, who was accused of exaggerating challenges on him by the Porto defence in the hope of producing some yellow cards, which in fact did happen. Later in the week, the Porto players
issued a press release accusing the Sporting players of a lack of fair play. Mourinho will face disciplinary proceedings from the Liga for his comments. Meanwhile, he is suing Sporting Director
José Eduardo Bettencourt
for his declarations at the press conference after the game, in which the latter accused Mourinho of ripping the shirt and wishing Rui Jorge dead. At the same press conference, Mourinho stated that he was fed up with Portuguese football as it was and wanted the Porto president, Pinto da Costa, to let him leave at the end of the season.
Sporting will also face disciplinary proceedings after only allow in Porto 1,700 tickets when the regulations state that the visiting club should be allowed up to 30% of the tickets on sale. 03/02/04 The Estádio D. Afonso Henriques in Guimarães, scene of a mini battle Sunday after the Vitória de Guimarães v Boavista Superliga
match, has been closed for 30 days by order of the Liga. Liga president Valentim Loureiro
said Monday that he will be pushing for new regulations to prevent anyone involved in football from making inflamatory statements prior to games that might incite violence. This follows the violence at Sunday's game and a week of possible incitement in the press in the run-up to it.
The Secretary of State for Sport, Hermínio Loureiro, said that the Government will be pushing a bill through parliament in February that will make it possible to ban offenders in cases like these from entering
stadiums. |
