Francisco J. Marquez bids farewell to Porto: “I’m leaving because of the agreement I had to make”

Francisco J. Marques announced this Thursday his departure from FC Porto, where he held the position of Director of Information and Communications.

“Today my contractual connection with Porto ended, the emotional connection will remain forever. I leave under the agreement that I was forced to make after gigantic sacrifices in my personal and professional life. I would do it again for Porto,” wrote on X.

While saying goodbye to the Estádio do Dragão, Francisco J. Marques also photographed the changes made by the new management, to which he expressed some criticism.

“Today I confirmed that the photo of Madjer’s heel, the most iconic image in our 130-year history, has in fact been replaced by a photo of the magnificent André and Jaime Magalhães, also in the Vienna final, but of no historical value. This is a very, very ugly decision that says a lot about the intolerance of those who govern us and which, for me at least, is immensely disappointing. Whitewashing is always ugly, erasing those who put us on top of the world is terrible and makes no sense,” he concluded.

Before this, Francisco J. Márquez had also made other considerations regarding his departure.

“From today on, I am a common partner, whom I will praise when I think it is fair – for example, I liked the new way of selling tickets – and criticize when I think it is justified – I did not like seeing how the president deprived Vitor Bruno of powers on the Pepe issue,” he wrote and continued.

“These almost 14 years have been a wonderful adventure. The last eight years have been extremely demanding, I have always defended the values ​​of FC Porto uncompromisingly. I have done good and bad things, I have made good and bad decisions, according to the management of FC Porto. The only thing that interests me is to reduce my years at Porto to the cases of emails – this is an oversimplification and an injustice, but the truth is that the biggest scheme of falsification of the sporting truth in the history of Portuguese sport has been exposed. and are not part of our club,” said the former Porto director.

Regarding the work done, he continued: “I am very proud of the fact that I have always tried to bring the members closer to the club. I have always been ready to help, to greet, to convey what the members asked me for. I have done this without advertising, without putting it on site myself, simply fulfilling the duties of an employee, I have brought to our facilities, without interfering in any way, a pure initiative of unconditional love for FC Porto, such as the Club Day – which is interesting, despite the fact that there are those who fill them. This year it has not yet happened, and we are already in August.”

In a long post, Francisco J. Marques continued: “At the request of the CEO Manuel Tavares, I conceived and created Dragões Diário, a way to combat misinformation about our club, a way to make our voice heard and reach everyone every morning. In order to provide simple and free information to our members and fans, I collaborated, whenever asked, with all the departments of the club. Other clubs have veteran teams, FC Porto has “vintage” teams, because the staff is sometimes disposable. There are some ideas. This last one, I hope they do not “erase” this name.”

And about the work done, he concluded: “I was the director of Dragões magazine. I chose the most beautiful and emblematic cover to illustrate this sequence, because it, in my humble opinion, combines the conditions for success in this area. Media and communication. Risk, creativity and love for FC Porto.”