Disinformation, Misinformation and Propaganda
It'll come as no surprise to anyone who follows Portuguese football that the gloves have come off without a ball even being kicked. When we look at the landscape of Portuguese media it's handy to know that the publication O Jogo based in the north of the country is well known for being Porto-centric in its writing. By the same respect the Record based in Lisboa leans towards being Benfica-centric. Last season saw the levels of disinformation, misinformation and propaganda against Sporting CP reach new heights and at times it felt relentless. Football used to be a game played for 90 minutes on the pitch and the winner was the team who scored one more than the opponents and boy those were simpler times. Now clubs use the media to pressure authorities and opponents in relentless attacks, whilst also using the tactics as a smokescreen for their own nefarious activities on and off the field. It would be hard to miss the coverage of both O Clássico’s held at the Dragõa last season. Ball boys hiding balls and Rui Silva's towels, drowning out the noise of away fans, posters designed to intimidate opponents…all just some of the actions taken by Porto during the league game. In the Taça semi final security staff attempted to stop the lions players getting to the away dressing room before the PCP intervened. This was all caught on camera by the way. Porto complained that Varandas blew Porto fans a kiss when being subjected to vile abuse. They managed to get Luis Suárez banned for one game against Santa Clara for a hand wringing gesture. Those were just examples from two games of the actions of the side that would eventually be crowned champions. If they were capable of these physical acts it'll come as no surprise to see how they attempt to manipulate the narrative constantly in the media. André Villas-Boas and FC Porto churn out more disinformation, misinformation and propaganda than the Nazi Government did at the height of the Second World War.
At FC Porto, club president André Villas-Boas makes no secret of his disdain for both Sporting as an institution and Frederico Varandas in turn. It's fair to say the feeling is more than mutual but the lions club president presents himself in a much more dignified and gracious manner. Rather than try to go through and find everything that was said to attack the lions last season we're going to try to follow the narrative across this season instead. At some point watch out for mentions of Rui Borges records in the Dérbi de Lisboa and O Clássico. Watch how at certain junctions his record against certain clubs may widen to fit the narrative such as Gil Vicente last December, only to be conveniently not mentioned when the two clubs met in the reverse fixture.
The project alongside driving traffic to their sites, is a blatant attempt to destabilise Sporting CP, its players and staff as an institution whilst furthering the ambitions of FC Porto and Benfica
On Thursday two news stories appeared in the Portuguese press, just two days out from the start of the new season pertaining to Sporting's players.
August 6th
Sergio André, Deputy Editor in Chief of O Jogo reports that Geny Catamo didn't like hearing Sunderland's approach for him had been turned down. Their reputed source - Chiquinho Conde, a Mozambican national coach.
Let's note that it's been made abundantly clear that Geny Catamo is integral to Rui Borges' plans for the forthcoming season. This will clearly have been communicated to the player from the outset and his expectations would have been managed.
On the same day the record reported that Luis Suárez had stormed off in training in a moment of fury. Only to … well reappear moments later and continue on with training without any issues.
Certainly that story pushed one Suárez’ nose out of joint, that of Mrs S. She took to social media to moan about fans believing bull shit stories albeit in a much politer manner than I just did here.
In Rui Borges’ pre-match press conference on Friday, confirmed as suspected that there was nothing in the story. The training session had finished, the Colombian ran off not realising the mister wanted to chat to them all, he came back and they all went off. As Borges said, this is ridiculous and who can argue with him?
The campaign started two months earlier to try to destabilise Luis Suárez, Portugal's top goalscorer from the previous season and the lions camp. It came not from Portugal, but from Turkey. In June ahead of the Fenerbahçe elections the presidential candidate Hakan Safi announced that if he won he'd sign the lions striker Luis Suárez to bolster the clubs title bid. He even claimed to have reached an agreement with the player over a contract. One thing he didn't have was permission to talk to the player or an agreement with the club. Varandas confirmed that Suárez would only be allowed to leave for his termination clause and not a penny less. Safi lost the election so we'll never know how that one would have played out, but we can point out that this is the same Hakan Safi that is posing in the photo below with an FC Porto shirt bearing his name standing alongside André Villas-Boas. I'm sure it's all one giant coincidence.
What wasn't coincidence was the interview that André Villas-Boas gave to the game in which he admits to costing up with Benfica's Club President Rui Costa before going on the attack once more against Varandas accusing him of a level of injury, slander and permanent victimisation that FC Porto will not tolerate.
Given the Porto club president's constant allegations at the lions and the only noise generally coming out of Lisboa to rebuff those claims, it really is a case of - are you having a fucking bubble?
8th August
After the draw to Estrela on Saturday night social media saw the infamous sleeper cells wake up and go straight into action against the mister Rui Borges with a no context statistic that quickly picked up traction and no verification as to whether it was correct either. In this instance that under Rui Borges, Sporting have gone ahead and let the lead slide on 16 occasions. Well my first question would be to name all the 16 games so we can see what the end result was. Because you can frame the same statistic to suit your needs. That's 16 games they were good enough to take the lead initially. Did they go on to win, draw or lose those games? What was the quality of the opposition and what was the competition? At what stage in the season was the match played? Were the lions fielding a full first team or were they suffering an injury crisis? There will be many more questions that could be added I'm sure because without context it's a nothing statement. Football teams since the invention of the game have seen opponents equalise. Has no mister before Borges not seen a lead slip? Did we not watch Ruben Amorim’ title winning side take the lead 3 times against Braga on the opening day of the following season and three times lose the lead to draw 3-3? Did we not watch Amorim's side take a 3-0 lead in the Supertaça only to lose 4-3 after extra time? Given the speed of which the no context statistic was put out on social media, how long has someone sat on it desperate to use it as a stick to beat Rui Borges with? We've just gone through a pre-season where we've not lost and in the games televised, had rolled over three of the four opponents by big scorelines in Celtic 4-1, Strasbourg 7-0 and Nottingham Forest 4-1. Take the Forest game as a counter narrative. They went 1-0 down in the first two minutes and yet beat a Premier League side 4-1. Language is always critical to how you frame a narrative. I don't know the actual statistic but let's say that 1 in 10 people die of cancer. But the same is also therefore true that 90% of people won't die of cancer. Same statistic presented in two different ways. If you asked someone who posted or reposted the Borges statistic why it's important I'm sure they'll scramble for an answer but it wouldn't be a well informed one because as I've pointed out there's no context provided. That means it's also harder to make the counter narrative. This being social media there's little or no point in even asking because you'll just get shot done with a nonsensical argument. We'd already raised the point of pulling data in to suit your narrative and then dropping it when it no longer suits in the case of Gil Vicente being in the top five last December when the two sides met and drew and yet of course when they were no longer in the top five and Sporting won at home the result no longer matters in the original context. It's not just the media who are trying to undermine the club but certain sections of the club's fan base. Supporters are a collection of people who support. You should be able to explain that one to a five year old. It's a sad indictment that many just seem to want to be right about Rui Borges rather than get behind the team.
I think it was also incredibly discernible that Luis Suárez and Geny Catamo put in below par performances on Saturday night two days after the media published those aforementioned stories. The Colombian in particular was completely ineffective coming on as substitute and was warned by the referee about his behaviour.
9th August
It should be noted that FC Porto's attempts to control the narrative and apply pressure on authorities isn't squarely aimed at Sporting CP. After their 2-0 win at home to Alverca, O Jogo reported that the criticism of the matchday referee on the clubs official webpage. They are nothing if not brazen about their approach. Luís Godinho failed to award either penalty that benefited FC Porto in real time and it was the use of VAR instructing him to go to the monitor that resulted in both being awarded. They highlight that the same thing happened when he officiated at the Dragão last season in the match between CD Nacional. Seemingly in that fixture what the home side perceived as penalties didn't see Godinho agree.
For the first penalty given André Silva has already got his headed effort away, subsquently missed and the balls going out of play. The Alverca goalkeeper makes contact with the players face afterwards. You would logically deduce that Godinho simply follows the flight of where the ball is going. Hardly an error if he's not watching the contact at the point it's been made after the chance had been missed. Now the second penalty is for a shirt pull inside the box. The cross comes whipped in from the right flank and again if you're following the flight of the ball past the first defender then the first thing Godinho would have seen is the contact of the second defender who gets the touch which sends it clear of the Porto player who is having his shirt pulled. So the reverse is true of the Porto statement. Plus you'd argue they're both subjective calls because neither player was denied a goalscoring opportunity so actually even if Godinho had seen them, it's hard to criticise his original calls. It's again plausible if you could see his position on the play that his view is obscured by the defender behind the Porto player. Referee's do not come equipped with X Ray vision. Maybe he saw it and was influenced by his colleagues decision in the Estrela v Sporting game the night before when the pull back on Quaresma wasn't deemed sufficient enough to be called a foul. That's what fans call for isn't it? Consistency in decisions? Well not if it effects your team in turn.
Godinho is for me one of the best referees in the Portuguese Liga. All match officials have a hard enough job and criticism of them in the media is bad enough but clubs should be reprimanded for all criticism whether it comes from their mister, players or on a club forum. O Jogo then amplify the statement and I'm sure social media would then be awash with views that referees have a conspiracy against FC Porto. This all coming despite both being awarded and both being converted in that 2-0 win. A handy cover up that they failed to put the ball in the back of the net by any other means over the course of the 90 minutes.
Clearly not like the good old days at FC Porto when your club president could bribe match officials with the use of prostitutes. How we hark for more innocent times.
Anything else I've missed? Oh there's an Elephant in the room in a Torreense shirt. For a week prior in the Supertaça the Liga 2 side weren't awarded a penalty which looked a night and day decision when Hwang clattered into Jean inside his area with a minute remaining. The replay clearly shows the South Korean connect moulds up onto his shin. FC Porto then went on to win the competition 1-0. Certainly a far more appalling decision than either one or Godinho’s.
Going back to the Eduardo Quaresma decision mentioned above I saw some fans criticising Rui Borges claiming he'd thrown Eduardo Quaresma under a bus. Well I'd suggest you'd have to be incredibly naive to not think the first thing the young defender did when walking into the dressing room was to acknowledge his error. All footballers are always told to play to the whistle so he was at fault. By Borges focusing on Quaresma and not the refereeing decision is actually very clever. He'll know full well that one if he did criticise the decision he'd get in trouble with the Portuguese authorities and secondly be labelled a hypocrite because we had plenty of decisions go our way last season. What you don't want is to remind everyone of the times when you did get away with one...or two... OK maybe three... Not that fans of other clubs have short memories anyways. But what it does demonstrate to referees is the club isn't publicly criticising them and blaming them which in today's climate must feel refreshing for them. It gives Borges an out later in the season too. He can say look, we didn't criticise the referee in the opening game, we understand mistakes happen but tonight we felt this should have have happened. Remember what the mister says to his players and then in public are two different things. We know there are coaches who've happily thrown their players under a bus but I don't believe for a second Mr Casio Watch himself, won't have said to Eduardo if I'm asked this will be what I'm going to say to the media - I'm not calling out the referee, yes you were hard done by but we can't be seen to criticise the referee's decisions. What's done is done, don't stress about it, these things happen just next time keep running.
12th August
You can't keep a good campaign down can you? Don't let the dust settle. Report and clipped images have emerged post Estrela game of the mister Rui Borges walking past Luis Suárez with the insuation that he'd deliberately ignored the Colombian forward. The full footage shows the mister walk on from the sidelines, shake the hands of opposing players and make his way to do the same with the match officials. At no point does he engage with any of his players, so not one of them, especially not Suárez has been singled out.
Let's not stop there though because stories also doing the rounds that CNN had reported that ... you guessed it ... Luis Suárez has had a falling out with Pedro Gonçalves. Yes that same Pedro Gonçalves that is all set to leave the club this summer. Quite handy that don't you think. Have CNN reported it? Because there's no article on their website which strikes me as a bit odd if people are quoting it, though that being said they are a media company rather than just traditional print media. What is CNN most famous for in Portugal? Sensationalism. Let's be honest though footballers not getting along with each other is nothing new so even if there is a grain of truth to the rumours we should hardly be surprised. Teddy Sheringham and Andy Cole refused to even talk to each other when at Manchester United and that included when they were on the pitch. For footballers it is a job which somes fans seem to forget. There cannot be many workplaces with a large number of employees whereby one or two don't rub each other up the same way. If it is true, then why is it only now coming to light now? What possible benefit could the timing have? Say with a transfer window open and a byline with no context or examples again being amplified by news sites and then on social media by fans. Would it be beneficial for other clubs to see last seasons top goalscorer in all of Portugal being hounded out of Sporting CP? And finally the claims that Luis Suárez has lost his starting place to Fotis Ioannidis. The Colombian returned back to training later because of the World Cup Finals and having taken his holiday entitlement straight after to recharge his batteries. He wasn't involved in any of the pre-season warm up games played over a full 90 minutes and is not yet anywhere near being match fit. So the reality is no mister, unless desperate, would start their star man from last campaign up front if there was a chance that not being fully fit could see them pick up some sort of injury. You imagine if you have watched your side without him beat Celtic 4-1, Strasbourg 7-0 and Nottingham Forest 4-1 you'll be pretty confident someone is likely to stick the ball in the back of the net.
Oh and as an after thought, it's helpful when you choose a player for Luis Suárez to have fallen with that won't appear on the same team again alongside one another to help and dispel any such rumours with evidence of the pair laughing and joking. Just saying...
13th August
Blimey even the normally sane A Bola have jumped on the Luis Suárez today with an interview with aa video interview with coach Paulo Robles under the headline "Anyone who saw the game saw a surprisingly unstable Luis Suárez." Who is Paulo Robles? I don't have a fucking clue. Some nobody Portuguese coach from the lower leagues. This pile on is getting more ridiculous by the day. Soon we'll have old ladies from Amadora caught on Vox Pops telling everyone what a naughty boy he's been.
22nd August
24 hours before kick off against and wild accusations in regards to the conduct of Luis Suárez, Pedro and Rui Silva doing the rounds. I won't even countenance the absurdity of the claims but apparently the alleged source is the same person who claimed Pedro Gonçalves absence post Amorim’s last game against Braga from injury was because of a failed drugs test. You wonder if people realise you can get sued for defamation of character because of social media posts especially where they're not even claiming an alleged involvement.
No games this weekend for either Braga or Benfica because of European commitments. Not a peep of complaint from anywhere. No threats of legal action. Just contrast that when Sporting legally exercised the same right to postpone the game sandwiched by the two Bodø Glimt Champions League games. FC Porto ran an orchestrated campaign for weeks in relation to that.
23rd August
Saturday night after full time against Alverca I partially called it correctly when predicting there would be transfer speculation pertaining to Inácio, Amorim and AC Milano. I was close, they used Barcelona instead. This coming off the back of Fabrizio Romano claiming they were interested in signing Luis Suárez. Barca went no we're not and he retracted the comment but the damage is done, another attempt to unsettle the Colombian.
25th August
We're just three games into the new season and to the best of my knowledge Sporting have so far managed to avoid any refereeing controversies. That is unlike FC Porto who didn't even manage to make it past the Supertaca before they got embroiled in their first of the season when the referee failed to award a late penalty to Liga 2 Torreense. So why then has their president gone on the attack again against both Sporting CP and Federico Varandas today? Oh yes, the deflecting tactic. Control the narrative. Everyone is against FC Porto and whose fault is that? Must be Sporting's. It's incredible that we can all live inside his head rent free.
The basic insinuation is that Portuguese referees are deliberately not awarding penalties in real time to FC Porto. Instead they have to rely on VAR (See previous posts above). Whereas Sporting benefit from a refereeing bias. I can't even be arsed to repeat what he said about Varandas. I think he was trying to be clever and funny but neither worked. At what point do the Portuguese authorities seriously begin to clamp down on the nonsense and constant propaganda being fought against Sporting as an institution? They're continually bringing the game into disrepute and trying to tarnish the reputation of Sporting whilst deflecting from their own appalling childlike levels of behaviour. I'd be mortified if he was our club president. He makes Bruno de Carvalho appear calm and rational.
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