Pedro Henriques regrets the qualification of the Portuguese referees

Portuguese arbitration “is not going through the best moment in the relationship between quantity and quantity,” laments former referee Pedro Henriques, seeing the excessive presence of Artur Soares Dias and Joao Pinheiro in the decisions of the First Football League.

“Second lines exist for a normal championship, but when it comes to decision, they don’t exist. I think this exposes the biggest sin of this Arbitration Board. [CA] Football Federation of Portugal [FPF]who ends his second term next year and has not been able to solve a problem we have been criticizing for years, namely having four, five or six referees with a handful,” analyzed the former referee, 57, who has managed over 350 games in both professional divisions.

Artur Soares Dias officiated half of the six “big” games played in the 2022/23 Liga I between champions Benfica, “vice-president” Porto and Sporting CP, finishing fourth, while João Pinheiro was nominated for two, and Nuno Almeida was driving. one.

“There is no need to go back to the distant past. It takes 20 years or even less to remember the referees who were called to these matches in turn. Several names suddenly came to mind: Olegario Benquerenza, Pedro Proenza, Duarte Gomez. , Paulo Costa, Paulo Paraty, Lucilio Baptista or Joao Ferreira. Some could be better, others worse, but they were called in because there was trust in arbitration and football itself. At the moment we don’t have that,” says Pedro Henriquez.

Fabio Verissimo, who in 2023 is part of a team of nine Portuguese referees with international distinctions, topped the table of matches played this season in Ligue I (21), ahead of Artur Soares Dias and João Pinheira (both with 20), with debutants Bruno Costa, Carlos Macedo or Hélder Carvalho and Joao Gonçalves in the background (limited to nine in total).

Two of the 306 matches played at the highest level have involved France’s Pierre Gaillouste and Bastien Deschepie under the terms of an arbitration exchange initiated from 2021/22 between the FPF and a French counterpart at each country’s main professional levels.

The current age limit for referees is set at 45 and could be raised to 48 if the AC agrees, but under the new FPF refereeing regulations, careers in the sector will be given the opportunity to add two additional years, up to 50.

Nuno Almeida is the oldest of the 22 judges on the main roster and will turn 48 in July, Rui Coste will be 47 in June and Manuel Mota will be 46 in March.

“It remains to try to understand whether this will be something that will also depend on the will of the FPF Board of Directors or become the rule, even if the body does not want it. That’s the difference. The idea was in some way to take advantage of those who reached the top and stayed there, and not to lose them, since it is difficult to hire and get quality referees in the I league,” said Pedro Henriquez, fearing that “this is a free electoral measure” by an organization led by Jose Fontelas Gomez thinking about federal suffrage in 2024.

Another decision recently announced by the FPF Board of Directors was the signing of a cooperation protocol with the Union of Professional Football Players (SJPF) to allow direct access to the refereeing career of former federation players without age restrictions through attendance. 20 hour training action.

“There is an additional measure of finding people with the know-how and experience to continue their football career with new features and obviously at lower levels. Sometimes there are minor injuries due to which the athlete cannot play. more, but be able to judge. There is no strike, only the running part,” he recalled.

Apart from the measures, Pedro Henriquez denounces the lack of external communications taken by CA during the season and accuses the federative body of “not allowing José Fontelas Gomes to come and speak whenever he wants on technical matters or the arbitration sector.”

“We don’t understand a lot. Why do we need a protocol with France? [na elite], but will there be another one with Cyprus for the II league? Arbitrators from these countries come here, ours go abroad, but where is the report that shows what happened, the pros and cons? ”, The current television and radio commentator concluded.