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footballportugal

feb 04 / jan 04 / dec 03 / nov 03 / oct 03
sep 03 / aug 03 / july 03 / june 03 / may 03
april 03 / march 03 / feb 03 / jan 03 / dec 02

29/03/04

The remaining access points and roads to Benfica's Luz Stadium were inaugurated Monday by Pedro Santa Lopes, Mayor of Lisbon, and José Luis Arnaut, Minister in charge of sport. The 65,000-seater Luz will be the venue for the final of Euro 2004.

União de Leiria president João Bartolomeu is suing former coach Manuel José, currently coaching in Egypt, for 50,000 euros. Bartolomeu is accusing Manuel José of defamation of character after the coach called the president 'dictatorial'.

28/03/04

Benfica's offer of debentures, which closed yesterday, was over-subscribed by 50%. The issue will raise 15 million euros.

FC Porto coach José Mourinho has admitted that he has received offers for next season, but he insists that he will not leave the club unless it is OK with club president Pinto da Costa.

22/03/04

Former FC Porto and Sporting star striker Mário Jardel has disappeared without trace in Italy. His club Ancona gave him some time off to deal with personal affairs, but they have not heard from him now for three days. Jardel left Sporting under a cloud at the end of last season and went to English club Bolton, where he could not hold down a first team place.

17/03/04

Sporting midfielder/forward Ricardo Sá Pinto will undergo surgery on a recurring knee injury this week in Basle, Switzerland.

The Estádio do Mar, home of Liga de Honra club Leixões, has been banned for a month after crowd incidents at the weekend's game against league-leaders Estoril (0-3)

Just three years ago they were Champions. Tuesday they had just three column inches in the top-selling sports daily, A Bola: Boavista. Meanwhile, in the same paper, Sporting were entitled to six pages, Benfica four and Porto three

13/03/04

All the weekend's games in Portugal will be preceded by a minute's silence. The Liga dos Clubes and the Federação Portuguesa de Futebol announced the gesture in the wake of Thursday's outrage in Madrid.

Portugal is sixth in the UEFA Rankings, consolidating its place after FC Porto and Benfica's exploits in Europe this season. Ahead of Portugal are Spain, England, Italy, Germany and France. Portugal is ahead of Greece, Holland, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

Benfica inaugurated a new restaurant in theclub's Luz Stadium Thursday, called ... A Catedral da Cerveja ('The Cathedral of Beer').

11/03/04

FC Porto's shares peaked at a 6% increase in value on the day during trading Wednesday, following the team's triumphant elmination of Manchester United from the Champions League Tuesday evening. Share vale was at a ten-month high.

Valter Silva, Director of Football at Algarve club Imortal, accused referees of having agents to "negotiate" results of games: "They phone us and tell us the price needed to win a game." Silva appealed for the Fraud Squad and the football authorities to quickly investigate this situation so that "the cancer of corruption doesn't  spread and kill Portuguese football once and for all."

A bruxo (male witch) has been to Vitória de Guimarães Estádio D. Henriques to put  a spell on it. Vitória are in serious danger of dropping to the Liga de Honra.

09/03/04

Jaime Pacheco has returned to Boavista to take over from sacked coach Erwin Sanchez. Pacheco was at Boavista for their title win in 2000/01, but then fell from grace and went to Spanish club Mallorca, where he lasted only a season.

07/03/04

Erwin Sanchez has been sacked as coach of Boavista. The Bolivian, in his first season as a coach, has kept the team on the fringes of a UEFA Cup place but the quality of the football played by the Panteras has pleased neither the fans (they whistled the team off the pitch at the end of the 1-1 home draw with Paços de Ferreira Saturday) nor, apparently, president João Loureiro: "It was without a doubt the most difficult decision I've had to make as president, but we reached the conclusion that there were no longer conditions for the coaching to bear fruit in what's left of the SuperLiga." Erwin Sanchez has been at the club on and off, as a player and then coach, for the last decade.

05/03/04

Liga de Honra club Marco have had their stadium banned for 30 days by the Liga following a pitch invasion by one man last weekend at the home game against Santa Clara. The local mayor, Avelino Ferreira Torres, was incensed by the performance of the referee and made his way to the pitch where he shouted abuse at the match officials and kicked over the table of the fourth official. After the final whistle, he entered the pitch to argue with the referee, with officers of the GNR (Guarda Nacional Republicana) looking complacently on.

Ferreira Torres is a former presidente of the club (the stadium is named after him). He is currently being tried separately for the crimes of abuse of power and embezzlement.

Eusébio, Figo and Rui Costa are among the 125 living players (50 still playing) voted the best in the world by Pelé. Photos of the players will be included in a book to be published by FIFA to celebrate the organisation's centenary.

FIFA agent José Veiga, who has represented such players as Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo, has bene invited to join the Board of Benfica. If he accepts, he will have to cancel his agent's licence.