Porto out of CL 2008-2009?

As it seems no one else has picked up on this, I'll start the ball rolling.

It seems there is the slight chance Porto may not be permitted to participate in next season's Champions League despite being Portuguese champions and in theory having secured a direct inclusion in the tourney.

This based on the issue of Porto's alleged involvment in corruption and influence peddling within the Portuguese league, dating back to the 2003-2004 season specifically. Uefa is apparently considering disqualifying Porto from competition and will pronounce themselves on the issue June 6th I believe.

Porto did not contest the penatly of 6pts they have been sanctioned with and as the time-limit has passed, no longer have grounds for an apeal. Should the punishment go through, Uefa may rule against Porto based on this action by the Portuguese Disciplinary Committee.

The possible ruling by Uefa seems to be based on the fact that Milan was permitted to participate in European compition despite being penalised in Italy as there was no such law prohibiting penalised clubs at the time; the law has since then been made to avoid this very situation and Porto could find themselves shut out as a result.

Let's wait and see what will happen, but if Porto are punished for influence peddling I think disqualification from Europe is a just punishment...it's a start at least. Portugal's point haul will be smaller as a result so who knows if the Portuguese League itself won't be against the idea.

http://www.abola.pt/nnh/index.asp?op=ver&news=140930&tema=5

This doesn't seem fair to me and I doubt UEFA will kick them out. Why should they be punished twice?

I haven't follow everything about the corruption. But three clubs were punished, weren't it? The only club who felt the pain was Boavista, wasn't it?

All those penalties given at the and of he year is a farce. Who cares if Porto win it with 6 more points or with 6 less points...?

Yep, Deducting 6 points when it doesn't really matter anymore gives me the impression they pro forma wanted to slap them on the wrist.

Can't judge the affair.

Luso wrote:This based on the issue of Porto's alleged involvment in corruption and influence peddling within the Portuguese league, dating back to the 2003-2004 season specifically. Uefa is apparently considering disqualifying Porto from competition and will pronounce themselves on the issue June 6th I believe.

Porto did not contest the penatly of 6pts they have been sanctioned with and as the time-limit has passed, no longer have grounds for an apeal. Should the punishment go through, Uefa may rule against Porto based on this action by the Portuguese Disciplinary Committee.

The possible ruling by Uefa seems to be based on the fact that Milan was permitted to participate in European compition despite being penalised in Italy as there was no such law prohibiting penalised clubs at the time; the law has since then been made to avoid this very situation and Porto could find themselves shut out as a result.

http://www.abola.pt/nnh/index.asp?op=ver&news=140930&tema=5

@Luso
Porto didn´t appeal because they wanted to end the process and because they were facing a 6 point deduction and had 23 more than the second.

The ground has nothing to do with Milan, it has to do with the season in question 2003/04. That law counts to the season you qualify for the event thus it would have to be relacted to 2007/2008.

And it is obvious "A Bola" is orchestrating along with Benfica a campaign to punish Porto the most they can as to try to give Benfica off the field what they didn´t achieved in the field - a CL spot. They are pretty low and lame. They don´t care the effect they have in Portuguese football abroad as long as they get the spot.

@Jol
What penalties? If you want to count the penalties of the last seasons we have the less number of the three big. That is just a smoke screen they use against us. The 2 games in question have nothing wierd or that we had any kind of avantage, in fact we draw at least one of them and we didn´t need any of them to win the title.

There are different punishments for different alleged actions that is why they are different.

Pro, the thing about Milan is in regards to Uefa. They've changed the ruling to keep clubs that have peen involved in the kind of thing Porto has to keep them from playing in Europe.

You haven't said anything new about Porto, is pretty clear they were happy with the slap the 6pts were... they've seen what happened to Boavista.

Have you ever stopped to think, that perhaps, you've had such large points advantages at times because of the off-field moves your president and board make???

That Porto-Sporting on the 2nd day of the season... had the ref's call been called against Porto... well... you'd (Portistas) be claiming that yet again a ref from Lisbon had screwed you.

You had a 20 pt lead (23 w. a game in hand), having 6pts taken from you was actually better for your president than anything else... that way he can keep shouting how Porto are victimised, and still, you've been champions.

If it happens, yea it'll be bad for Portugal's points.. but your own doing.
(Alleged, do you believe Boavista and Leiria to have only allegedly done wrong as well?)

Luso wrote:Pro, the thing about Milan is in regards to Uefa. They've changed the ruling to keep clubs that have peen involved in the kind of thing Porto has to keep them from playing in Europe.

You haven't said anything new about Porto, is pretty clear they were happy with the slap the 6pts were... they've seen what happened to Boavista.

Have you ever stopped to think, that perhaps, you've had such large points advantages at times because of the off-field moves your president and board make???

That Porto-Sporting on the 2nd day of the season... had the ref's call been called against Porto... well... you'd (Portistas) be claiming that yet again a ref from Lisbon had screwed you.

You had a 20 pt lead (23 w. a game in hand), having 6pts taken from you was actually better for your president than anything else... that way he can keep shouting how Porto are victimised, and still, you've been champions.

If it happens, yea it'll be bad for Portugal's points.. but your own doing.
(Alleged, do you believe Boavista and Leiria to have only allegedly done wrong as well?)

Yes but since the law is not retroactive you can´t use it to punish something before the time it was created, that is a fact.

Off moves that are alleged suppositions made by the rivals who are all saint and will go to heaven every single one of them. Get real Luso don´t let your hate and bitterness towards Porto blind you sight like it does to most of our rivals. If you guys are not performing blame your board, your structure, your players whatever.

I am not happy by what happen to all the others as all the alegations are unfounded and illegally used(phone calls are not acepetd unless specified-not the case and a book written by hostile persons doesn´t make it real because the bitch said it so and the benfica friends help her to write it) but they needed the scape goats and the Porto clubs would do just fine.

Yeah right i am used to all the selective memory of our rivals. They never have anything supsicious in their favor it is allways all Porto. If they have some calls, no problem, ours are worst. If Porto have things against us not signed by refs it is football so they say or they ignore it, you guys are so boring sometimes. Do you think if you repeat that to yourselves that kind of argument a million times over and over it will justify your failures and will make you happier? Will it makes it truth? Will it solve you lack of efficiency of the clubs? Don´t tell me that is Porto fault too? I am sure it is. Hey if rains today in Lisbon i bet the fault will be porto's too, beggers in the world? porto's fault etc etc etc.

I will not go on a ref war with you about game A or B, we both know all have calls in favor and against so,especially the 3 bigs so don´t bother to specify a single game out of 30 and forget the ones that favor you or one of our only 2!!! penalties this season forgetting to refer all therivals and if they were fair. To be honest i never lose time talking about ref no matter if they go against us or not, i just don´t care. A team must be able to win no matter that and that is no excuse in my book. If Porto loses it is not about refs it is about the team didn´t perform or lacked the finish moves, it is their fault not the refs.

And of course till day 2 A Bola will have something new every single day so all rivals can prepare themselves to open topic in here on a daily basis.

Pro, you really shouldn't go the 'hate' route... it's an easy excuse for Portistas to use... which is part of what I'm getting at. You seem convinced I (and everybody) hate Porto, perhaps including the city as well, that I'm bitter etc. without knowing a thing about me.

It's not a North v. South thing for me in any way... I'm neither pro Lisboa nor anti Porto.. I can't be against my very being in that sense... my blood comes from Norte/Sul. Telling yourself I hate Porto and blame everything that's wrong with Sporting on Porto is just a cop-out.

Have you seen me make excuses for my club on here? Do I strike you as an irational person, who simply points the finger the other way regardless of the occasion?

I'm an honest person, I call things as I truly believe them to be. Porto as a club is very well run, professional in its internal funcitons, very savy in its negotiations with other clubs and the major force in Portuguese football at the moment. This is our current reality.

It is common for Portuguese football fans to speak of the Salazar era Benfica, something Portistas openly do - denouncing the corruption in Benfica's favour at the time - on the same note Portuguese football fans now point their finger at Porto for similar reasons: off-the-field influences.

In both cases the on-field achievements of both these clubs has not been forgotten, credit, to an extent, being given where credit is due... but that does not erase the dark cloud over both periods.

We aren't talking about bad calls, those happen everywhere in the world; we're talking about intentionally stacking the deck, and that's a whole diferent story.

Like it or not Pro, this Porto club of the last 20 some-odd years will always have this cloud over it and it's not because it's from Porto the city. Get over the whole North/South... wanting truth in football has nothing to do with it.

It is not a route, it is a reality unfortuntly. You know in Portugal there is a club biased atitude. And i am not removing portistas from it it is well spread evenly.

North vs South? That is bullshit sold to some supporters, the question mark of that problem is centralism or not. But that problem is not the issue here.

The portuguese problem is about clubite and an envy atitude that i hate (again all clubs have this problem). They rather want the others destroyed than to try to overcome their sucess. And that is what Benfica directors are trying to do, it has nothing to do with justice or the like. And that is what most Porto-haters fans want. They don´t care about justice they want blood. For them Porto was and always will be guilty of everything their clubs fails to achieve.

Most Porto fans had that atitude in the past like you say and that doesn´t make it right in my view too. Many porto supporters are pretty much biased too but we do not control the press/media and we do not shape the genereal opinion to our whims like our rivals do.

That cloud you say is the same Benfica have in the years of Salazar...3 leagues for Benfica... 1 for Sporting... 3 leagues for....etc. Check the past winners and tell me that you don´t see a padron

And no i did not said you were irrational but the fact is Sporting and Benfica fans want us to be punished badly no matter if there is something to punish or not. And that you can not deny, all are eager to see us punished and it is as easy as ask any of them.

And you say the merit was given anyway? No it wasn´t. Probably yes in Benfica golden years but anytime i hear a rival fan talk about our victories and their lack of wins it is always about the porto's dark hand over portuguese football, they just can´t justify their failures without the porto boogie man.

Hey, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there aren't those with motives that have nothing to do with fairness.

The Portuguese press is a joke, and I don't think you can accuse them of being pro-Sporting. Porto at least has OJogo that is clearly in favour of Porto above any other club, although I've just as I've mentioned before they seem to be the fairest of the sports papers, but Sporting really has none.

Do you not find it funny that every year Sporting is portrayed as a $h!t team that's always on the brink of falling apart...and yet it never fails that these same papers are always the first to declair the interest of foreign clubs in our players. It's a mystery to me how our players can be so $h!t and yet be so saught after.

While Benfica is portrayed as a super-squad, Sporting is portrayed as an inexperienced side that can't fight for the title...and yet we've been closer than they have, finishing ahead of them and having better seasons (we've actually won $h!t and played finals).

So, is there an interest to simply 'get' Porto for the meer reason that it's taking the place that used to be Benfica's? Yes, in my mind there is. Do I think Benfica itself, as a club, will be doing everything it can to get at Porto... no question.

However, any ill will on the part of others doesn't undo or pardon what's been done by those found guilty. In my mind you can't point your finger at others, claiming they're only out to get you - even if it is true, and even if you hadn't done anything - when you're guilty of corruption.

So who would take the CHamps spot ?

After Sporting which finished 2nd, the next clubs in line: V. Guimaraes, with Benfica going into the 3rd qualifying.

In the end, it's a decission that Uefa will make. And, as Porto has more influence than Benfica in Uefa, obviously the decission will be on their side.

The Portuguese press are rumouring that Porto will be banned from C/L. But the real decission from Uefa will be out on 4th of June.

Sgoater1 wrote:So who would take the CHamps spot ?

Should go to Man City, surely? 6th fairest team in England, after all

Futebol > Nacional > BWIN LIGA > Porto
Batalha legal
ESTADO DE EMERGÊNCIA NO DRAGÃO



O FC Porto está a preparar-se para defender com unhas e dentes a sua presença na Europa em 2008/09. A UEFA informou ontem da abertura formal de um procedimento disciplinar “tendente à verificação das condições de admissão” dos dragões na edição de 2008/09 da Liga dos Campeões.

A sentença de primeira instância será proferida na quarta-feira, 4 de Junho, devendo o departamento jurídico portista esgrimir os seus argumentos até ao dia anterior. Como Record noticiou, a SAD enviou recentemente o advogado Daniel Pereira a Nyon e a batalha legal será travada em todas as frentes viáveis.

Recorde-se que a decisão da Comissão de Controlo e Disciplina, na próxima semana, não é definitiva, sendo passível de recurso para o Comité de Apelo. Em desespero de causa, o FC Porto poderia ainda lutar no Tribunal Arbitral do Desporto, em Lausanne, mas nessa sede os processos estendem-se de 4 a 6 meses, razão pela qual seriam perdidos os efeitos desportivos de uma sentença favorável.

Em paralelo, há que ter em conta o propósito do Conselho de Justiça da FPF em decidir todos os recursos do Apito Final até ao dia 11 de Junho. O FC Porto não contestou a perda de 6 pontos, mas Pinto da Costa avançou em nome individual.

Fonte da Liga tem a convicção de que os castigos aplicados pela Comissão Disciplinar serão mantidos mas, se o presidente dos azuis e brancos for ilibado, esse dado poderia ter peso para a argumentação portista no âmbito de um possível recurso.

De qualquer forma, o imbróglio pode morrer na quarta-feira se a candidatura portista à Champions não for bloqueada pela alínea d) do ponto 1.04 do Regulamento de Competições da Liga dos Campeões, que impede a inscrição de clubes que tenham estado envolvidos em situações de corrupção.

Prejuízo

A exclusão da Champions implicaria um desastre financeiro para o FC Porto, com prejuízos na ordem dos 12 milhões, dado que as previsões da SAD costumam prever a presença nos oitavos-de-final. Trata-se de cerca de 15 por cento do seu orçamento, o que tornaria muito difícil a manutenção das figuras mais valorizadas da equipa.

FC Porto out of the CL next season.

Good news for Benfica.

Quaresma, Lucho and Lopez must be surely off now.

Don Leo wrote:Good news for Benfica.

And Sporting, I think.

f@ck it must have been serious

Protheus must be gutted

Porto not admitted to Champions League

The UEFA Control and Disciplinary Body has decided FC Porto will not be admitted to the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League after studying a matter involving alleged bribery of referees in Portuguese domestic matches in 2003/04.

Further information
In two cases, the Portuguese champions were last month deducted a total of six points and fined €150,000 by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Portuguese Football League. Following reports published in the Portuguese media about the issue, UEFA contacted the Portuguese Football Federation to obtain further information.

Admission criteria
The matter was subsequently referred to the UEFA judicial bodies for further examination, as there was felt to be a doubt over whether Porto fulfilled the admission criteria, notably Article 1.04 (d) of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League regulations. The article states that to be eligible to take part in the competition a club must, among other things, not be or have been involved in any activity aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level.

Portugal judgement
The Control & Disciplinary Body considered that the offences related to the judgement in Portugal corresponded with "an activity aimed at arranging or influencing the outcome of a match," as stated in Article 1.04 (d), and that the condition set out in this provision would therefore not be met by Porto. The decision is open to appeal within three days of the sending of the decision.

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/keytopics/kind=512/newsid=705421.html

Could anybody explain exactly why?

After several years of being unable to prove that their president was paying referee's to favour the Porto team, this year, through phone taps, and two eyewitnesses testifying, Porto were found guilty, involving two games. The Portuguese FA deducted them 6points. As this didn't really effect them significantly, they accepted the punishiment. Sadly for them, they were unaware of the rules, which clearly state that corrupt teams cannot qualify for Europe. That's roughly what happened. Of course, Portistas will tell that because Benfica can't win on the pitch, they do everything to win of it.
Still Porto can appeal, so the final decission isn't yet taken.

Calidad wrote:f@ck it must have been serious

Protheus must be gutted

He will be but he probably realises it could of been a lot more worse by Porto getting relgated down a league or two.

Gone wrote:

Don Leo wrote:Good news for Benfica.

And Sporting, I think.

Doesn't matter to us; we're automatically in.
V. Guimaraes gets into the group stage, Benfica will have to play the 3rd qualifying.

Ade Alves wrote:Quaresma, Lucho and Lopez must be surely off now.

Don't think Lopez will leave as this was his first really successfull season.

Lucho perhaps, Quaresma I think will be the most likely.

Ade Alves wrote:

Calidad wrote:f@ck it must have been serious

Protheus must be gutted

He will be but he probably realises it could of been a lot more worse by Porto getting relgated down a league or two.

Not in Portugal. They're not Boavista.

Luso wrote:

Ade Alves wrote:Quaresma, Lucho and Lopez must be surely off now.

Don't think Lopez will leave as this was his first really successfull season.

Lucho perhaps, Quaresma I think will be the most likely.

Li-Lo will leave nowdays in football it takes a year or even a few months to get a big transfer

I hope Porto wins the appeal... Considering how corrupt football is then this is an extreme overreaction