1.20 The Rise and Fall of Bruno de Carvalho - The King is Dead

To quickly recap the last post we heard the verdicts of the 44 defendants trialled in connection with the attacks that took place at Alcochete. All three accused of having moral authorship of the attacks: Bruno de Carvalho, Bruno Jacinto and Nuno Mendes were acquitted on all charges. Those on charges of carrying out the attacks under various sub headings of the law were either given suspended sentences of prison sentences depending on their prior records. None of the 44 were found guilty on account of the charges of terrorism.

For the final part of the Rise and Fall of Bruno de Carvalho we switch our focus back to the main protagonist at the heart of the story, the man himself. We've followed his rise to becoming club president way back on March 23rd, 2013 at his second attempt. We looked at each of the season's under his tenure, the sackings of managers Leaonardo Jardim after just twelve months and of Marco Silva again coming just twelve months later citing the infamous ‘just cause’, that despite the young mister having lifted the first title win of de Carvalho's presidency after winning the Taça de Portugal. After that came the Jorge Jesus years at great expense to the clubs coffers as de Carvalho chose to make him the highest paid coach in Portugal. Jesus would deliver a Supertaça in his first full game in charge but only added a further Taça da Liga to his trophy haul before his mutual departure after the 2017/18 season which culminated in the darkest day in the clubs history with the invasion and attacks at the clubs training complex in Alcochete on May the 15th, 2018. We'll pick the timeline back up from that point as we conclude how he was finally removed from his position as Club President, that coming despite his best attempts to remain in office. It'll come as no surprise that despite the attacks on players and coaching staff, neither did he resign, nor in his own mind did he think that they warranted his removal as the club's president. Which begs the question what he thinks would have warranted it because it truly had been Sporting Clube de Portugal darkest ever day in it's history, something that still shames it eight years later and will always continue to do so. If nothing else it should always stand as a stark reminder to whoever sits at the helm of the club both now and going forward, that it can never allowed to ever be repeated. Lesser men have done the more honourable thing and resigned for far less down the years.

The attacks at training ground weren’t the only thing that the club were having to deal with that week. It became embroiled in a huge corruption scandal with claims that high-ranking officials within the organisation were involved both in match-fixing and the attempted bribery of players of opposition teams. Initial reports suggested that it was limited to the sport of handball, however fresh allegations arose which suggested that it may have also involved six football matches at the start of the season. Four arrests were made in what was dubbed ‘Operação Cashball’ the most notable of whom was André Geraldes, Sporting’s team manager for football. The whistleblower in the allegations was the football agent Paulo Silva who claimed to have bribed players of other teams at the behest of Sporting officials. Alongside the invasion and attacks at Alcochete it forced many of the club’s board members to stand down. One man who definitely won’t budge however despite growing calls for his resignation is the president Bruno de Carvalho. Instead he guaranteed at a press conference that he wouldn’t resign and instead stated that Sporting was being subjected to an “unprecedented attack” with a “clear goal to oust the current board”. In light of de Carvalho’s refusal to resign, at least two sponsors of the club rescinded their deals. The Jornal de Negócios reported that the value of Sporting SAD’s shares had fallen by 11.7% due to these latest events. For Sporting it seems it never rains but it pours. 

With de Carvalho’s refusal to resign and the ensuing fallout of both the invasion of Alcochete and Operação Cashball, Sporting as an institution felt that they had no choice but to call an extraordinary General Assembly. This took place on June 23rd, 2018 at the Altice Arena, in Parque das Nações, in Lisbon where 14,735 members were present. The question on the ballot paper - "collective revocation, with just cause, of the mandate of the members of the Board of Directors" to ultimately determine the dismissal not only of what was left of the Board of Directors who hadn’t already resigned but of the removal of Bruno de Carvalho from his position of Club President. 71.36% of the votes were recorded in favour, and 28.64% against. The vast majority of the club's members had spoken, they'd had enough and the president's reign was over. De Carvalho’s removal came five years and three months after his first election and he unwittingly became the first ever President of Sporting Clube de Portugal to ever be removed, resulting from the decision taken at the General Assembly. We note however the decision wasn't unanimous with de Carvalho still retaining the support of roughly 1 in every 4 members. 

As you might have expected from the man, he didn’t take the decision to remove him from his position with any sense of grace, class or general decorum, instead initiating a series of precautionary measures, first to attempt to annul the decisions of the Disciplinary Commission and the President of MAG. Then taking steps to try and guarantee his presence in the 2018 elections or at the very least prevent them from taking place. Those attempts proved unsuccessful however and de Carvalho declared that he would contest the electoral act of September 8th.

Sporting however as an institution had at least one more card up their sleeve to play and in the final phase of the mandate, the Supervisory Committee left a recommendation for Bruno de Carvalho to be expelled as a member, which was followed by the Fiscal and Disciplinary Council. Their final decision was that they considered that multiple and very serious disciplinary infractions had been committed, including the attempt to block accounts and usurpation of functions. Again not a decision that the man would exactly take lying down and so he appealed this decision to a General Assembly. 5,190 members were present at a vote which took place on July 6th, 2019 who upheld the decision of the Fiscal and Disciplinary Council with 69.30% of the votes in favour of the expulsion and so it came to pass that not only had de Carvalho lost his reign on power, he was also no longer a member of the club he had supported since childhood and therefore no longer to be able to stand for election. The chickens had finally come home to roost.

So bad news on the job front. Worst news came with his arrest and subsequent trial facing possible terrorism charges amongst others, and of being one of three men that had moral authorship of the invasion and attacks at Alcochete. After months of trails the judge in the case acquitted him but not before the Portuguese press had a field day and had gone to town to stick the knife in. In fact had they been real knives over the years from the four wives who divorced him, the players he'd upset, the agents, the club staff, his three coaches whilst in charge of Sporting, the press and anyone else he'd upset, it would have made it look like Julius Caesar had gotten off scot-free by comparison on the Ides of March. 

Speaking after the acquittal Bruno de Carvalho gave a statement expressing his belief that: "It was a very violent crime perpetrated on me, a character assassination. I can get out of my two-year confinement.”

Yes, let that statement just sink in, a violent crime perpetrated on him whilst he plays the victim card. Perhaps I missed the part where like the players he'd been present at the attacks at Alcochete and been subjected to the physical attacks? 

Continuing his reaction to the court's decision: 

"I hope you heard well and that you understand the difference: you are talking to human beings, to parents and to children. I have parents who were worried, I have daughters who had to hear what they didn't want.

The court was very careful to say every time that there was no evidence. This was a crime perpetrated on me.

If you, journalists, who are the ones who inform people, have the courage to say that I was acquitted, because I was found innocent, I can start to come out of my two-year confinement.

I have already said what I think of the prosecutor, accompanied by the judge. As a citizen, I just have to admit it. She restored the truth."

"It was a crime like never before. It was the assumption of something I had known for two years. It is in your hands not to perpetuate this crime any longer. My daughters and my parents listen to what you say.

For me it doesn't change anything, I hope you change a little. Does the media regret having insinuated that I was a drug addict, that I beat my wife?

It was a very violent crime, a character assassination. You have the role of thinking about how you should approach the news. No one deserved to go through what I went through. No citizen."

Those lines - “it was a crime like never before” and “it was a very violent crime,” again not de Carvalho speaking about the attacks, but that the prosecution had the audacity to suggest he may have been one of the three men behind them. They could have gotten one or the performers from before the Troféu Cinco Violinos to have found the world's smallest violin and played it just for him. Yes granted, to an extent he had been a victim but certainly not to the extent he was portraying after the Lord Mayor's Show and if we're truthful their really was no evidence to base the case made against the man. Yet, when you put everything that happened together it's not hard to suggest that with another president in charge the attacks wouldn't have ever happened. Without the relationship between himself and the claques, they wouldn't have had the type of access they'd grown accustomed to. He might not have been guilty of being the mastermind but he should have paid some price for his part in it. He should have fully demonstrated a level of remorse. He should have done the honourable thing for the club and himself and resigned. People get forgiven for their actions if they show signs that they're willing to learn from their mistakes and to make amends. I've never seen any evidence of de Carvalho acting in such a manner because he's too busy playing the victim card.

When asked by a reporter present, do you dream of returning to Sporting? He replied 

"I dream of hugging my family again."

To the question - Will you be a member of Sporting again?

"It is elementary justice to be a member of Sporting again. But I don't demand anything from anyone, it's in the conscience of the Sporting fans.

I have always been innocent. They should have trusted. I gave everything for Sporting and put Sporting ahead of my life, my family. Fortunately, my family did not abandon me."

It would take until September of 2023 until the defendants in the Operação Cashball case were finally acquitted. All defendants in the case were acquitted after the Public Prosecutor's Office had accused sports businessmen Paulo Silva and João Gonçalves and former Sporting employee Gonçalo Rodrigues of crimes of active corruption, on suspicion of enticement of referees and a football player in favour of Sporting.

So what happened next for de Carvalho? Did he disappear quietly into the night and attempt to rebuild his reputation in the shadows? 

Well, far from choosing to disappear into the background, in 2022 Bruno da Carvalho appeared on Portugal's Celebrity Big Brother. Later in the year he married fellow contestant Liliana Almeida, a former member of the Portuguese girl group Nonstop which had been created in 2001 during Portugal's version of Popstars. It is noted that they achieved notable success with their debut album, Nonstop, and single, "Ao Limite Eu Vou". (Nope, me neither but anyways.) However Almeida couldn't repeat the success of the foursome in her marriage and became the fourth member of a different exclusive members club, those to have divorced de Carvalho, which she did in the June of 2024. Returning to Big Brother quickly, just in case you care, he finished 7th having been evicted after 43 days

De Carvalho released a book titled Sem Filtro - As Histórias dos Bastidores da Minha Presidência (Without Filter - The Behind-the-Scenes Stories of My Presidency).

He has appeared as a pundit on Portuguese football programmes and also as a DJ. I really can't be arsed to work out if that's on the decks or meant as a radio presenter, I'm frankly sick of the man's name already by this point in my writing about him. 

Yet finally Sporting were rid of him. There's was no more damage he could do to the club. No more surprises to be had…

Well no, that's a lie actually, it turned out he had left some parting gifts.

Presuming he was still safe in his role he carried on as normal as if the attacks had never occurred on his watch and it transpires that one of the President's very last acts in charge turned out to be the hiring of two employees, Augusto Inácio and ... a new mister.

Sporting's new general manager for football was set to be Augusto Inácio. However to reverse that decision it was confirmed it will cost the club the princely of €450,000. Inácio had signed a five year contract earning €7,500 per month and would have to be compensated for the 60 months of his contract with the club. He had previously held the position between 2013 and 2015. 

If you think that decision reads as a costly one…

Siniša Mihajlović was signed as the new mister on a 3 year contract to replace the outgoing Jorge Jesus on June 18th, 2018. However the new incumbent Sousa Cintra decided to terminate his contract after just 9 days. He cited the new misters decision to change the location of the club's pre-season training camp, a move it’s claimed which cost the club €300,000. The club added that they considered he was still in his probationary period. 

Fuck me sounds like they're citing our old friend ‘just cause.’ You really think someone at Sporting should have learned their lesson by now but it appears not.

Mihajlović it has to be said, much like Ricardo Sá Pinto many years before him, had garnered a reputation for controversy. He allegedly racially abused Patrick Viera in a game against Arsenal when playing for Lazio with the Frenchman claiming that Mihajlović had called him “nero di merda” which I'm guessing means the horrific racial slur of you black piece of shit or words to that effect. You'll forgive me for not wanting it in my Google search history. In a move Gianluca Prestianni would later use at Benfica in the 2025/26 season over claims he'd racially abused Vinícius Jnr, Mihajlović claimed he hadn’t racially abused him at all, but had called him “zingaro di merda” which means a gypsy piece of shit. Well that's OK then. By which I actually mean clearly not OK. There's always one person who doesn't get when you're being ironic. In November 2003 he received an 8 match ban by UEFA for spitting at Adrian Mutu when playing for Chelsea. Charming character, I can see why him and de Carvalho might have made the perfect match given the chance. 

Information suggests that Mihajlović was offered a settlement of three million euros to terminate his contract however in September 2018 it was announced that he was seeking €11.195m in damages from the club for wrongful dismissal and damages to his reputation. Speaking to Italian newspaper La Gazetta dello Sport he’s quoted as saying “In 30 years of my career, as player and then Coach, I’ve never seen anything like it. I will have my rights respected, that you can count on.” In November of 2019 Mihajlović appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, who obliged the club to pay him by May 1st. 

Perhaps de Carvalho wrote his speech?

In April of 2020 it was reported that he’d written to UEFA to request that Sporting be kicked out of European Competition for non-payment of obligations. 

Mihajlović who forged his reputation with Red Star Belgrade, came to the forefront of European attention in Serie A, first playing for AS Roma, Sampdoria, Lazio and finally Internazionale. He passed away in the December of 2022 following complications of leukaemia.

In the next post  will try to draw a line under everything. Bonne chance you say? I think I'll need it. We'll join you all again next time.

Oh I even managed to find this gem. Always shy and retiring to the last, Bruno de Carvalho has even appeared on a record with Scró Que Cuia. I absolutely shit you not.

https://youtu.be/cqL2SdJ4xsM?si=ko2avd26lOl0IP3h