Apito Dourado
The Apito Dourado (Golden Whistle) affair is a corruption sports scandal in Portuguese football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária) investigators named several football personalities as suspects (arguidos) of corrupting or attempting to corrupt referees, including Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, chairman of Futebol Clube do Porto,[1] and the former Boavista Futebol Clube chairman and Portuguese League for Professional Football President Valentim Loureiro.[2]
In December 2006, Pinto da Costa's former partner Carolina Salgado published the book Eu, Carolina (I, Carolina), where she made serious accusations against him. Pinto da Costa deemed these accusations "absurd" and said he would address them in court.[3] Salgado's book caused the two cases in which Pinto da Costa was involved, which had already been dismissed, to be re-opened.[4]
In March 2008, Porto's Tribunal de Instrução Criminal decided that one of these cases, concerning a match between FC Porto and Beira-Mar, would proceed to trial.[5] The other one, concerning a match between Porto and Estrela da Amadora, was dismissed for the second time in June 2008 and the main accusation witness, Salgado, accused of perjury.[6]
In July 2008, Valentim Loureiro was found guilty of abuse of power but not guilty of corruption. He was sentenced to three years, two months of suspended jail time.[7]
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[edit] Apito Final
In 2007, the Portuguese League for Football started an unrelated process calling it Apito Final (Final Whistle). On 9 May 2008, Boavista were relegated to the second-tier Liga de Honra for bribery and FC Porto were docked six points for attempted bribery. This caused UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body to ban the team from the UEFA Champions League 2008–09,[8] but this decision was later annulled by UEFA's Appeals Body,[9] meaning Porto has been admitted to the competition. Sport Lisboa e Benfica and Vitória de Guimarães appealed to Tribunal Arbitral du Sport, but once again, the reason was given to FC Porto, and was decided each of this teams had to pay €10,000 to FC Porto. The Portuguese League has also sentenced Pinto da Costa to a two-year suspension; João Loureiro, former Boavista chairman and Valentim Loureiro's son; to a four-year suspension; and João Bartolomeu, União de Leiria chairman, to a one-year suspension. Five referees have also been suspended.[10] All the clubs, chairmen, and referees punished have filed appeals, except for FC Porto, whose punishment didn't prevent them from comfortably winning the Portuguese League title for the third consecutive time with 14 points ahead of the competition.
[edit] Acquittal
On 3 April 2009, Pinto da Costa was acquitted on all charges related to the Beira-Mar-FC Porto match of the 2003-04 season, by the Portuguese Justice.
Under the Constitutional and Ordinary Laws, phone recordings can only be admitted in court when certain types of crime, by their specificity or gravity, allow the use of such means of evidence.
On May 2011, the Central Administrative Court of the South of Portugal ruled that the decision of taking six points from Porto´s global classification in the 2007-2008 season, as well as the suspension of Porto´s President, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa for two years, both confirmed in 2008 on a controversial meeting made by the Justice Council of the Portuguese Football Federation, were to be ruled as "inexistent", due to the fact that those decisions were taken by a small number of the remaining counselors, after the meeting had been declared finished by the Council´s President, and acting behind the President´s and the Vice-President´s back, as they were absent by then. The Portuguese Football Federation has announced it would appeal from this decision to the Administrative Supreme Court.
[edit] See also
- 2005 Bundesliga scandal
- 2006 scandal in Italian football
- 2009 European football betting scandal
- 2011 Italian football scandal
- 2011 scandal in Greek football
- 2011 South Korean football betting scandal
- 2011 Turkish sports corruption scandal
- Brazilian football match-fixing scandal
[edit] References
- ^ Police raid HQ of European champions Porto, ABC (Source: AFP-Agence France-Presse), December 3, 2004, accessed December 2006
- ^ Portugal football bosses arrested, BBC News, 20 April 2004, accessed December 2006
- ^ Pinto da Costa não comenta acusações, TSF Online, 12 December 2006, accessed June 207 (in Portuguese)
- ^ Carolina Salgado Testemunha da Judiciária, Correio da Manhã, 12 December 2006, accessed December 2006 (in Portuguese)
- ^ Soccer-Porto president to stand trial for alleged bribery, Reuters, 25 March 2008, accessed July 2008
- ^ Pinto da Costa não vai a julgamento e Carolina Salgado acusada de falsas declarações Sol, 30 June 2008, accessed July 2008 (in Portuguese)
- ^ Valentim condenado a três anos e dois meses de prisão com pena suspensa por abuso de poder, TSF Online, 18 July 2008, accessed July 2008 (in Portuguese)
- ^ Porto not admitted to Champions League, UEFA.com, 4 June 2008, accessed July 2008
- ^ Porto admission confirmed, UEFA.com, 16 June 2008, accessed July 2008
- ^ Apito Final: Boavista punido com descida de divisão, FC Porto com perda de seis pontos , Público, 9 May 2008, accessed July 2008 (in Portuguese)
