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?
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