02/06/04 José Mourinho is to be presented as Chelsea's new coach in a press conference Wenesday. He has rescinded contract with FC Porto.
Negotiations will follow for the signing of some of the 'jewels' in Porto's crown, like Deco (who admitted contacts Tuesday), Costinha and Paulo Ferreira Sporting have sacked coach Fernando Santos.
Sporting lost three of their last four games of the season and let themselves be overtaken by arch rivals Benfica into Second spot in the SuperLiga, thus losing out on a Champions League place. Jesualdo Ferreira
has extended his contract as coach with Sporting Braga for one more season. FC Porto 'keeper Vítor Baía took advantage of the World Children's Day to present his idea for the
'Fundação Vítor Baía 99', which will help deprived kids, especially in the area of sport. 01/06/04 FC Porto cach José Mourinho has meetings with Chelsea
Chairman Roman Abramovich
on the latter's yacht in the South of France at the weekend. Former Chelsea coach Claudio Ranieri has been sacked by the club. Mourinho still has two years left on his contract at Porto, and Chelsea are yet to approach the club to negotiate the coach's rescission, but it seems clear that Mourinho will sign sooner or later, and will probably take some players with him, Costinha, Deco and Paulo Ferreira the most talked about.
Mourinho will make 6 million euros a year at Chelsea, who will have to pay Porto 1.5 million in compensation. Porto have apparently contacted former Real Madrid coach Vincente del Bosque
to take over from Mourinho. 29/05/04 The Algarve has a new club. Although the region, on the south coast of Portugal, struggles to maintain the clubs it already has (Farense,
Portimonense, Louletano, Olhanense, etc), and despite the focus on the region that Euro 2004 will bring, the new club has the objective of drawing together the potential fan base of 400,000. The name of the club:
Algarve United Futebol. 26/05/04 The game of musical chairs that is the situation of the coaches at all Big Three clubs continues. José Camacho has left Benfica
for Real Madrid. From Real to Sporting may go assistant coach at Real José Peseiro, with Carlos Queiróz as his director. To Benfica may go Felipe Scolari
after Euro 2004 is over. From FC Porto will go José Mourinho, probably to Chelsea, but with Liverpool looking on. Into FC Porto may go the Italian Neri, or possibly Casemiro Mior
from Nacional. Benfica have been cleared of any wrongdoing over central defender Ricardo Rocha's contract. The problem is from 2002 when the player was signed from Sporting Braga. There was a
suggestion that the contract was signed outside the permitted time frame, and Benfica faced losing the Taça that they won recently and second place in the Liga, which gives access to the Champions League.
23/05/04 Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa has been voted in as FC Porto
president for another three years. He was the only person standing for the post. He has been president of the club for 22 years, and has won, among many titles and cups, a European Cup (1987), an Intercontinental Cup, a European Super Cup and an UEFA Cup. Porto meet Mónaco in the final of the Champions League next week.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored the first goal in Manchester United's comfortable 3-0 win over Millwall in the English FA Cup Final Saturday. United manager Alex Ferguson considered him to be the man of the
match. 22/05/04 The British broadsheet 'The Independent' suggested Friday that any possible deal to take FC Porto coach José Mourinho to Chelsea
could be in jeopardy over demands by Mourinho to take some of FCP's players with him, notably Deco, Paulo Ferreira and Ricardo Carvalho. Benfica coach José Camacho
looks increasingly certain to leave the club, lured by the prospect of training the love of his life, Real Madrid. The sports papers are feverishly attempting to guess who his successor might be. Major sports
daily A Bola suggested Friday that it might be Felipe Scolari ... or France coach Jacques Santini. Sporting
meanwhile may pick up the crumbs of Real Madrid's relatively disastrous season, with Real's assistant coach José Peseiro in line to replace Fernando Santos, Carlos Queirós as technical director. Former
Vitória de Guimarães president Pimenta Machado has said that he will not be standing again at the upcoming elections. 20/05/04 Benfica's Brazilian central defender Argel
has renewed his contract for two years. 19/05/04 Benfica coach José Camacho is not yet at Real Madrid, but it's definitely on the cards: "It seems that I'm favourite to work in Real
Madrid, but odds don't sign contracts, and so far there's nothing with Real. There's a lot that needs to be done before that happens." 18/05/04 Portuguese international left-back Rui Jorge, who
was subject to suspension following a positive doping test playing for Sporting, has been cleared by the Portuguese football authorities. The decision came on the eve of the call-up of the Portuguese squad for
Euro 2004. National Team coach Felipe Scolari
has welcomed the decision and announced that Rui Jorge will be in the squad, to be announced officially Tuesday. The player was found to have a banned substance in his system, but always claimed that it was a part of medication to treat a sinusitis problem.
Benfica's ex-junior player Bruno Baião, who died at the weekend following two heart attacks and a period in deep coma, was laid to rest Monday. His mortal remains had lain in state for two days at the Estádio
da Luz and had been visited by thousands of fans. There was a minute's silence to remember him before Sunday's Taça de Portugal Final between Benfica and FC Porto. 17/05/04
Carlos Carvalhal, who brought Vitória de Setúbal up to the SuperLiga this season, is the new coach of Belenenses, who parted company with August Ignácio recently. Two Portuguese coaches
were head-to-head in Egypt Saturday. Zamalek (Nelo Vingada) beat Al Ahly (Manuel José) 2-1 and clinched the league title with four games remaining. Saturday was the last day of the Segunda B
('third' division) season, and all outstanding promotion and relegation situations were resolved (except for relegation play-offs between Caçadores da Taipas, Sporting Pombal and Amora): Segunda B
(North)
Promoted to the Liga de Honra: Gondomar
Relegated to the Third ('fourth') Division: Bragança, Ermesinde, Leça Segunda B (Centre)
Promoted to the Liga de Honra
: Sporting Espinho
Relegated to the Third ('fourth') Division: Académica B, Águeda, Portomosense, Marinhense Segunda B (South)
Promoted to the Liga de Honra: Olhanense
Relegated to the Third ('fourth') Division: Farense, Sporting B, Sintrense, Santo António Promoted to the Segunda B are the following: Valenciano, Vilaverdense, Ribeirão, Fiães, Penalçva do Castelo,
Tourizense, Benfica Castelo Branco, Abrantes, Casa Pia, Portosantense, Atlético and Vasco da Gama 16/05/04
(Photo - ASF)The captain of Benfica's Junior team, midfielder Bruno Baião, died in hospital Saturday. He had been in a coma since Tuesday following a heart attack. He was
just 18. There will be a minute's silence for the player before Sunday's Final of the Taça de Portugal between Benfica and FC Porto. In January, Hungarian
striker Miklos Fehér, also of Benfica, died of a heart attack on the pitch at the end of a game against Vitória de Guimarães. 14/05/04 Benfica youth player Bruno Baião
suffered a heart attack Tuesday and is still in intensive care in hospital. He had just learned that the club was going to renew his contract when he suffered the incident. Players' agent José Veiga, formerly
Figo's manager, has handed in his agent's card. This will leave the way clear for him to take up a senior position at Benfica. FC Porto winger César Peixoto
was in a bad car accident Wednesday but came out unscathed after hitting a wall in his Mercedes. Rumour has it that Benfica coach José Camacho is being tempted by Real Madrid
. He told the Spanish press Wednesday that his heart is really in Madrid. The longest serving president in the SuperLiga (24 years), Vitória de Guimarães'
Pimenta Machado, has stepped down. The club barely escaped relegation this season. Machado may, however, stand again. Belenenses and coach Augusto Ignácio have parted company. Ignácio was
within a whisker of taking the club down to the Liga de Honra after joining mid-season. He was the third coach at the club this season. Lined up to replace him are possibly Nelo Vingada
, who would return from Egyptian side Zamalek, or Carlos Carvalhal, who brought Vitória de Setúbal up this year but who has just rescinded with them. Vitória de Setúbal may contract Alverca coach José
Couceiro. Alverca were relegated at the end of the season. English coach Mick Wadsworth has begun his time at Beira-Mar after António
Sousa left under a cloud. Wadsworth was not 100% popular in England, where among other things he was assistant to Bobby Robson at Newcastle. (See alternative site).
FC Porto's South African striker Benni McCarthy was elected player of the month by the Portuguese Players' Union. The top five were: 1 McCarthy (FC Porto)
2 Wender (Sporting Braga)
3 Simão (Benfica)
4 Rossato (Nacional)
5 Alan (Marítimo)
6 Paulo Bento (Sporting) 12/05/04 A new law
, 16/2004, was passed in Portugal Tuesday. It comes into effect with barely a month to go before Euro 2004 begins. The purpose of the law is to prevent and punish acts of violence
at sporting events, making the organisers and promoters responsible for such acts and making it a criminal offence to commit same. Some of the penalties set forth in the law are: banning
the person from the venue where the act was committed for one to five years; violence in groups could lead to a prison sentence of between six months and three years; invading the pitch may
be penalised with up to a year's prison or a heavy fine, as may throwing objects onto the pitch. 11/05/04 FC Porto
quashed rumours Monday that the club has approached four coaches to take over from José Mourinho, who seems set to leave - although the club insists
that he has a contract until the end of the 2005-2006 season. The four coaches are Fernando Santos (who is currently at Sporting and who has already been Porto's coach), José Camacho (Benfica) and
Carlos Queiróz and José Peseiro (Real Madrid) Vítor Pontes will remain as coach of União de Leiria for at least another season. The club is to release
Caíco, Peter, Cláudio, Paulo Duarte, João Manuel, Roberto, Oliveira, Quievreux and Sérgio Gameiro Carlos Carvalhal has left Vitória de Setúbal after taking them back to the SuperLiga
at the first attempt. The Portuguese coach has said that he want to manage a bigger club. FC Porto midfielder/forward Sérgio Conceição underwent surgery Monday on
his right knee, which he injured in the final game of the season against Paços de Ferreira Sunday. He is expected to be out for at least a month and will miss the Final of the Taça de Portugal
against Benfica next Sunday. 09/05/04 Beira-Mar president Mano Nunes confirmed Saturday that António Sousa was
as good as out of the club as early as day 30, saying that the exisiting model was "worn out". Sousa has been at he club as coach for almost eight years, before
which he was also a player. Lined up to take over from him is Englishman Mick Wadsworth who has served under Bobby Robson with England and Newcastle and has also been at Huddersfield and Southampton.Meanwhile, 'keeper Andy Marriot
has rescinded contract with Beira-Mar by mutual agreement. Marriott was first choice for the latter part of the season, but recently suffered a serious injury in training. 08/05/04 As the daily Jornal de Notícias reported Friday, the British press already has FC Porto coach José Mourinho with one foot in Chelsea. Figures being bandied
around are between six and 14 million euros a year for Mourinho, nine million euros compensation for Ranieri, and almost 150 million to be spent on new signings.
Mourinho would be expected to take with him some of his talismans from Porto, from Paulo Ferreira, Nuno Valente, Ricardo Carvalho, Costinha, Maniche, Deco, Derlei. The midfielder Maniche
, one of the mainstays of FC Porto's campaigns in the last two season, has been charged with drink-driving in the Algarve. He faces a fine and possible driving ban. Benfica coach José Camacho
has been linked with a possible return to Real Madrid, if and when Carlos Queiróz is shown the door there. For the moment, Camacho is, however, saying that he is 100% focussed on Benfica and their last
game with Leiria, which could clinch their return to the Champions League, and the Final of the Taça against FC Porto. Camacho has also been linked to Porto, should Mourinho leave.
06/05/04 Former Benfica, Marítimo and Estrela da Amadora winger Sabry was arrested Monday when he tried to go through passport control at Cairo airport with a
fake Portuguese passport. The Egyptian international could face up to three years in prison. 04/05/04 Juve Leo, the Sporting claque that invaded the pitch during the
Sporting v Benfica Superliga match Sunday, have accused the Benfica players Zahovic and Argel, both on the bench, of provoking the disturbances with gestures and spitting.
On an RTP Internacional discussion programme, Argel challenged a commentator that accused him of the fact to produce evidence. Sporting's left back Rui Jorge will be suspended by the FPF as from Tuesday
following confirmation of his positive test for a banned substance after Sporting's game against Moreirense in February. He could get a ban of between six months
and two years, but the fact that the infraction appears to have been the result of an oversight by the club may weigh in his favour. Alverca player Pedro Neves
was banned for six months Monday for testing positive. Following the team's defeat to Benfica, shares in Sporting fell by 4.5% Monday to finish at their lowest level since June 2003. 01/05/04
Belenenses midfielder Valdiram has been sacked by the club following accusations of attempted rape and murder against the player the player. A couple
identified the player as being the perpetrator of an attack on them while they were in their car late last Friday. |
