Portuguese clubs could face defeat if police skip European games

European football competitions have inflexible rules regarding the postponement of games, a context that could, at the limit, punish Portuguese clubs with a sanction for defeat in the event of a lack of security in stadiums.

Porto will host England’s Arsenal in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 on February 21, a day before Sporting face Switzerland’s Young Boys in the second game of the round of 16 playoffs. Europa League, a stage in which national champions Benfica and Sporting Braga will begin hosting French team Toulouse and Azerbaijani Qarabag on the 15th of this month respectively.

“I foresee the possibility that clubs could be sanctioned for defeat if there is no game in Portugal that counts for any European competition due to a lack of policing. This will involve interference with the calendars of teams that play in other championships, but that they will not necessarily have to rebuild. I believe the competition may just move forward. It’s not that it would be an ideal scenario, but I don’t see a solution either,” José Miguel Albuquerque, lawyer and head of the Portuguese Sports Law Association, admitted to Lusa.

On Saturday, Famalicao’s reception at Sporting was the only match of the 20th round of the I League postponed to an undetermined date due to the absence of PSP elements in the stadium, which was motivated by the sudden delivery of a large number of medical leaves.

This position was taken after protests in Lisbon and Porto by the security forces, who demand that the mission be given an allowance equal to that of the judicial police.

Facing the risk of a lack of policing spilling over into Portuguese club duels in European competition, José Miguel Albuquerque illustrates UEFA’s intransigence with Tottenham’s premature ‘dropout’ from the Europa Conference League in 2021/22.

The English had an outbreak of Covid-19 in their squad before hosting Rennes, but the organization deemed the club unable to appear in the decisive game of the last round of Group G and awarded them a penalty for defeat due to the impossibility of rescheduling.

“UEFA is much more inflexible in matters of discipline. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, the clubs are subject to these sanctions and we move on. Obviously there will be a lot of discussion after this about whether the Clubs were to blame and what they could have done. I think we are following a very unlikely scenario. [em termos continentais]“But I don’t know if it’s so unlikely that the country won’t host any more games in various competitions,” he admitted.

In addition to Famalican-Sporting, in the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP) competitions, the matches between Leixões and Nacional, as well as between Feirense and Académico de Viseu, were postponed on Sunday, both in 20th round of the II League.

“It is interesting that these issues were contested in the north and even relatively close to each other geographically, but policing was carried out throughout the country outside [durante o fim de semana] and with several examples from the northern region such as Chavez and Visela. [onde foram realizadas partidas do escalão principal no domingo]”,” said Jose Miguel Albuquerque, senior associate at the Telles Law Firm.

Interior Minister José Luis Carneiro ordered on Saturday evening an urgent investigation into the events surrounding the limited police intervention during the clash in Vila Nova de Famalicão, after the LPFP made these demands to the government.

While declaring respect for national professional football, Club League President Pedro Proença assured that the organization will do everything possible to determine responsibility for the postponement of the Famalican-Sporting match, dismissing incidents that occurred outside the arena where discontent erupted. they were agitated and people were injured.

“The powers that be can and should fight for the rights they see fit, but they could have done it differently, namely by foreseeing that there would be no game or police, so that it wouldn’t even be worth it for anyone’s sake.” might go there. Perhaps We would have avoided some of the problems and images that we have seen. This does not mean that the absence of police excuses such behavior. Obviously not, but we would have avoided all the movement of this mass of people. to a place that is quickly becoming a place of risk and insecurity,” added José Miguel Albuquerque.