1.13 The Rise and Fall of Bruno de Carvlaho - Court Testimonies: Vasco Santos and André Geraldes

 

So as always a quick recap of what happened last time though apologies if you're binging this like a Netflix series at some time in the future when all parts have been released and just finished reading the last post where we heard the testimony to the court of Ricardo Gonçalves, head of security at the Sporting CP academy at Alcochete at the time the invasion and attacks occured on May 15th, 2018. We learned through Gonçalves testimony that whilst Claques coming to the Academy was nothing new, traditionally they were always arranged in advance with permission having been granted. In this instance however a group had showed up and the warning given was so late in the day that no sufficient precautions could have been taken to stop what happened. That being said it does appear that the only party with any notion of what was about to occur was the attackers themselves. The club liaison officer knew they were coming but only thought to advise Gonçalves of their imminent arrival despite knowing maybe 2 or 3 hours in advance. Whilst Gonçalves was concise in his testimony, Jacinto's that we read in the post previous to that had been full of contractions and left us with more questions than answers. As previously stated with all posts where testimony is quoted I'm reliant on the translation owing to not speaking Portuguese and Google translate is notoriously bad with the language. Unlike English Portuguese is both masculine and feminine but Google translate cannot tell the difference and he will frequently be represented by she. It is not my offence to mislead anyone if the quote proves not to be 100% accurate. 

This post will concentrate on more testimony provided to the court by two very senior figures within Sporting SAD, the former director of security and operations, and from the Sporting manager, which I read to actually be the equivalent of what you would probably recognise today as a Director of Football. We will start with the testimony of…

Vasco Santos 

On the morning of the 14th session it's the turn of Sporting's former director of security and operations, Vasco Santos to give evidence. Santos in his role was responsible for the overall club security including games played at the Estádio José Alvalade. Ricardo Gonçalves the head of security at Alcochete would have reported directly to Santos as his superior. 

Santos discusses the meeting held on April 7th, 2018 scheduled by de Carvalho and confirms that both André Geraldes and Bruno Jacinto were present in their roles as sporting director and fan liaison officer, respectively. Those also present at the meeting the president of the Juve Leo Nuno Viera Mendes (Mustafá) and about 40 others linked to the ultras group. The meeting took place two days after the defeat against Atlético de Madrid, and de Carvalho’s post published on the social media platform Facebook criticising the players. Despite de Carvalho scheduling the meeting it takes place at the claques headquarters known as ‘cashina.’ The meetings aim was to "appease the heated spirits of that organised group of fans and apologise" to them. 

"At that meeting, the leader of the Juve Leo gave the floor to the members who wanted to speak, who directly questioned the president and showed discontent with the 'posts' on Facebook, the manner and the words that the president had used in addressing the players. The president apologised several times.”

Some of those present showed discontent with the team's performance. "On the one hand, the fans did not agree with the way the president addressed the players, but, on the other hand, they were also not satisfied with the team's performance. They suggested making more chants, more banners, phrases, specific choreographies to signal to the players, go to Alcochete to talk to the players and try to encourage. There were several ideas on the table, with many people giving suggestions. Bruno de Carvalho said: 'get organised, do what you want and then inform me.”

Note the words there before and after “do what you want,” namely “get organised,’ and “then inform me.” Not carte Blanche, not licence for the invaders and attackers to “do what you want.” Having already found no evidence of de Carvalho having been involved in the planning through the WhatsApp group messages, this is what the prosecution was basing their case that Bruno de Carvalho was one of three moral authors of the attack. Like how I discussed in the post with testimony from officers from the GNR, one critical line has just seen their case against the former club president crumble even further if in fact any remained at all. 

Santos is asked about the context in which de Carvalho made this statement. He explains that there were "several proposals and ideas", adding that the president, at that moment, "was not in the best condition, because he had his wife hospitalised, and at the end he said: 'do what you want'".

"He was tired of being there and wanted to leave. I deduced from there [from that statement] that he was tired, saturated and wanted to get out of there.” Santos noted that at no time, was there any mention of aggression or threats to the clubs players.

"Tempers were high on the part of the fans, the meeting was tense, they criticised the president's behaviour on social networks frontally and in a very assertive way, but they also criticised the team's performance.”

Santos states that the trip to Alcochete would be merely to talk to the players, "probably to play more and try to encourage them to perform better in the games". In the period after he confirms that as "the days went by" he did not receive "any appointment to go to the academy", thinking "that the idea had been abandoned".

Note - This is a meeting in April discussing the notion of the claques attending Alcochete to meet with the players. Claques who are clearly disgruntled with not only the players but with de Carvalho as well for his behaviour. This is one full month and eight days ahead of the attack that took place. Santos merely assumes having heard nothing in the interim that any plans had fallen by the wayside. But fast forward to Sunday May 13th, 2018 and the scenes at Funchal Airport. Here Fernando Mendes is clearly heard telling Acuña and Battaglia to that he'll see them at Alcochete. Now you're not going to try tell me that it wasn't standard policy to report these incidents to Santos in his role as head ot security for Sporting SAD. Because whilst hindsight is a beneficial tool for me to have, so is common sense and a shoet term memory that at least runs to one month and six days. Because if ai out myself in his shoes and I either witness it first hand in the airport or it's reported back to me you can bet your bollocks Id have been thinking clearly they hadn't forgotten about coming. Because of the four main supporters groups all having a presence in the same stadium in which he's based it wouldn't have taken more than five minutes to get up and have a stroll down to Casinha on Monday morning, the day before the attacks and check to see if there was anything significant happening. Or he could have picked up the phone, or sent someone down, or looked at CCTV outside. You get where I'm going with this I'm sure. Pick up the phone to Ricardo Gonçalves and make him aware there was an altercation at the airport and a threat made that Fernando Mendes had told certain individuals he would see them at the training ground. Maybe make efforts to speak to Jacinto the clubs liaison officer to the fans, speak to the GNR and PSP. You know general steps to cover your own arse just in case. As head of security and with a cup final six days away he had to be talking to both the GNR and PSP on a regular basis anyway about a multitude of things connected with that game. It would have also had to have happened that week. Why? Because the season was due to end in six days time. If Mendes turned up after that period he'd have found no one there they'd all left until pre-season training commenced. As I say hindsight is a wonderful thing but more wonderful is common sense and at least half a functioning braincell.

And back to the post…

The court wishes to establish whether these type of meetings between the Claques and the club were usual. Santos confirms that these type of meetings with fans were normal, owing to de Carvalho's way of being. "He was always connected to the fans. The president had a posture of approach, of dialogue with the fans. He approached them and allowed himself to be approached directly by them. There were several meetings like this. Some I attended. Given the posture of this president, these meetings were not abnormal.”

In his considered opinion the invasion of Alcochete was due in part to an "absence of communication." Santos added that they had "no alert" from the PSP of the fans' going to Alcochete. He noted that the club had chosen not to implement a set of measures to strengthen the security of the academy, suggested a year previous. 

The reporting of Santos' testimony is sadly one of the shortest and maybe in this writers humble opinion, one of the most interesting accounts that had been presented to date and it seems like a missed golden opportunity because I'd have had an abundance of questions to put to him. Such as whether in his role of director of the clubs security and having been present at the meeting with Jacinto, who it was established knew of the fans planned attendance at Alcochete, whether he would have been expected to have been informed? Jacinto claims to have told Geraldes but why not relay this information to Santos? It appears either a dereliction of duty, incompetence on the part of Jacinto or just negligence and incompetence of the highest degree on his part. Again this assumption on Santos' part that having heard no more about a planned visit, I'd have asked the question what steps if any did he take to follow up in his role as head of security whether they still planned to attend? Because if the answer was yes, that would have allowed him to take additional security steps on the day irrespective of whether his previously proposed security increases had been ignored by the club. One assumes that given Alcochete acts as the ground for matchdays involving all levels including Sporting B and Sporting CP Feminino that it's pretty open and easy to access (besides acting as the clubs training base). If 40 irate fans displayed their displeasure at the player's standards durint the April meeting would it not be relevant to suggest that the same sort of number might travel to Alcochete in the same type of mood and that even if it the possibility seemed remote at the time, things might escalate beyond a war of words into something else? This was after a 2-0 in Spain. Imagine how super pissed they were after the 2-1 defeat in Marítimo on the last game of the season where the winning goal comes from a mistake from Rui Patrício in goal. To allude to it as a howler is being polite. It's equally as negligent as some of the people employed by the club who could have actually helped prevent the attack from happening. 

Then we have de Carvalho's inability to take criticism from the claques in the April meeting. The self styled man of the people who couldn't wait to get out of the meeting who ends with that immortal line “do what you want.” I'm not suggesting that the claques took that as licence to attack the players because that would of been naive and dangerous for me to do so without added context. Context such as Santos provided in his testimony to the courts. Missing words that change what he said entirely. You can also imagine de Carvalho downbeat and rather than just shrugging the whole affair off actually wanting to ask who they were to criticise him as the club president and his actions on social media but knowing exactly who they were and what they were potentially capable of probably thought better of it. Sporting Clube de Portugal like any business have a duty in terms of its care towards its staff and players and their safety and welfare. That's every employee from the first team players right down to the stewards on a Matchday. Something that they ultimately failed to do and it serves as a lesson as to the dangers of clubs who allow these types of meetings with large numbers of claques. If feels like something out of the middle ages when chieftains of warring clans would sit down with one another. Their was from my opinion a clear deriliction of that duty of care. Throughout we're all reading the word ‘former.’ That's former head of club security, former club liaison officer, former club president. So on with the testimony given by another member of staff who we shall note in context of being ‘the former’ …

André Geraldes

On January 31st, 2020 Maisfutebol reported on evidence given by the former Sporting team manager André Geraldes. Noting his title of team manager here, he actually held the position as a director and is not to be confused with the position of coach as was held by the mister Jorge Jesus more commonly referred to in Europe as the team manager. Geraldes’ evidence was being heard by video conference at the 24th session of the trial concerning the invasion of the club's academy in Alcochete on May the 15th, 2018, which was taking place at the Monsanto Court. 

André Geraldes, by now the CEO of Portuguese side Farense testified that on April 7th, 2015 a meeting took place at the Juve Leo headquarters, known as 'Casinha'. This came just two days after the 2-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid in the Europa League which let's not forget led to the infamous war of words that played out on social media between de Carvalho and nineteen of the players who were initially suspended by the club president. "At the meeting with the Juve Leo supporters group, Bruno de Carvalho reportedly said: 'Do whatever you want'”. Geraldes added: "Bruno de Carvalho was close to the fan groups and was being pressured by them," after they had "shown dissatisfaction" with the football team's results. 

Geraldes states that de Carvalho "used a belligerent tone with the players," and that, after the defeat against Marítimo on May 13, 2018, two days before the invasion, "the president was out of control.”

Note - That's quite a damning indictment of de Carvalho. It's so dangerous for one man to seemingly have so much control. This is the club president who sets the standards that everyone else should follow in the organisation. When he's being described as out of control that's a frightening statement. His behaviour during his entire tenure has been erratic but this season it appears that Geraldes words are quite prophetic. His actions are those of man with a Messiah Complex. He doesn't resign his position after the attacks, believes his behaviour played no part in anything that happened. The fact that players wanted to rescind their contracts and for him to resign is part of a conspiracy he's the narrator of in his head. Rome is burning and he's only thought as he went up in flames was to ensure he held onto the last vestiges of power. 

Bruno Jacinto, the clubs liaison officer previously claimed said to have sent Geraldes two text messages the day before, warning him that there would be a visit by supporters. Geraldes refuted those claims stating and Jacinto’s version of events claiming to have had no prior knowledge. Instead Geraldes testified that his first knowledge of the invasion was during a meeting being held at the Estádio José Alvalade "through television images,” adding "in which Bruno de Carvalho was also present, entering and leaving the room several times."

Note - On October 15th, 2019 it was reported that the prosecutor Cândidar Vilar had been given a 15 day fine equivalent to around €2,500 by the Superior Council of the Public Prosecutor's Office. Vilar was punished specifically because of a decision she had made during the proceedings when she wrote in the Alcochete indictment that the investigation “was not finished” because the Judicial Police had not yet managed to complete the forensic analysis of Geraldes’ mobile phone. Owing to this the case against him was closed despite the initial suspicions that he might have known the attack was planned. It should be noted this is the same week Geraldes' becomes embroiled in the Cashball scandal and as we know it's also the week of the cup final so it's entirely possible that both Jacinto and Geraldes are telling the truth. If you don't know the existence of something then you cannot reasonably have been expected to go look for it. Let's make the assumption that when the scandal breaks Geraldes is fielding a lot of calls. It doesn't state what type of messages that Jacinto left him: voicemail, text or WhatsApp. If he was on the phone and calls were diverted to voicemail and you've got journalists leaving messages about the breaking scandal then they could plausibly just have been sat in with a lot of other messages that were never listened to and therefore both men were telling the truth especially if the phone may well have been taken as part of the other ongoing legal case at a latter point of the week. Truthfully it would have just been handy for someone to have asked a question to ascertain what happened to his phone that week. If they did it wasn't included in the reporting. Ultimately it's fair to say that from the evidence presented has been a complete and utter shit show. It's all becoming an abject lesson in how not to do things. How not to run a football club, how not to allow your relationship with claques to cross a line, how not to undertake security, how not to run a prosecution case. I could go on. 

Geraldes confirmed for the hearing that: "Bruno de Carvalho told us to stop what we were doing and go to the academy. We went together.”

During the rest of his testimony he added that de Carvalho had told him that he "wanted to fire coach Jorge Jesus since the beginning of May,” and that "objectively he had no knowledge that anyone wanted to harm the Sporting players," but admitted that "the atmosphere created over time may have exacerbated" that situation. 

Note - Again this testimony tallied with what we'd already learned about how de Carvalho never takes ownership of the problems. On the pitch it's always the fault of the coach. Had Jesus not been on such a huge contract I've no doubt in my mind he'd have been out the door at the end of his first season and I'd have probably written about five different coaches. If you're at war with the players is it any wonder that results suffer? Many people think that players are robots but we're all human. We'd all be worried about our futures especially if you were one of the 19 de Carvalho lashed out and suspended in a knee jerk reaction. Players have mortgages to pay, some have got kids in local schools who are settled. They have short careers in which to maximise their earning potential and this is Portugal not the Premier League. They can earn reasonable salaries compared to the average person but for many football is all they've ever known and a lot of them aren't the sharpest tools in the box. 

Sidebar - We touched specifically on ultras in an earlier post and the power they hold on the continent but maybe it's worth reiterating just how powerful some of these groups are, especially in countries like Italy where if their leaders declare their members aren't to attend on a Matchday, then they don't attend. We're not talking a couple of hundred people here either, we're talking potentially 10,000 supporters plus. Their leaders can clear an entire stand quicker than any safety marshal could in an emergency. They'll instruct their fans to stay silent in protest at the players, then if they happen to be winning on the pitch. Lazio's ultras as an example have already confirmed they will boycott both the derby against Roma and the final game of the season at home to Pisa in protest at their ownership. One day someone in England will realise all this and when they do those clubs who treat their fans like customers will get the shock of their lives. Here we have the demands to meet with the president being met. Guess what, if he doesn't meet them, his words don't get misconstrued and used against him by a prosecutor, maybe the worst that happens is he gets his car vandalised. We'll never know. 

After hearing from Gonçalves, Santos and Geraldes, if you didn't already know which two were former staff members at the time and which one was still employed by the club I would suggest that it wouldn't be that hard to guess. Gonçalves maybe should have followed his gut instincts but that's easy to say after the Lord Mayor's Show and dear Lord were Sporting SAD left with an awful lot of shit to shovel when everything was finally said and done.

So far we've heard testimony from the GNR, the clubs technical staff and various members of staff from the liaison up to director level. Join us in our next part when we hear the testimony of some of the players who were either attacked directly or who paid witness to the scenes.