Benfica are widely recognized as one of the world’s most publicly supported clubs. Benfica pride themselves on the fact that, in spite of not playing in one of the big three leagues, they have a comparable level of support. Even though they aren’t necessarily as “fan involved” as a club such as Barcelona, they still tend to be a “fan forward” type of club. To this end, they rely on the fans greatly, especially during periods like the present when the team is having sub-par seasons.

So, at last night’s meeting, when president Viera refused to entertain discussion from the fan groups, the fans became unruly and violent. They swung at the president, with one report saying that he was kicked in the stomach. A number of people present were calling for his resignation, saying that he has done little for the supporters groups as well as in-stadium security. Rui Costa attempted to quell the uprising and spoke plainly with a number of the outraged fans.

My opinion? Start winning. These types of things tend to go away when your club is successful.

On a side note, the final verdict regarding Boavista’s potential participation in the first division as well as a number of other appeals in the Golden Whistle case are apparently being deliberated as we speak and a decision will be handed down in the coming hours/days. It’ll be nice to finally close the book on this stain on Portuguese football and move forward to the impending season.

Martins arrives after a spell with Spanish La Liga side Recreativo Huelva who finished just two points shy of relegation this past year. While Recreativo owned part of Martins, he was still also partly owned by his first club and fellow Portuguese giants Sporting. After a number of encounters with Sporting Boss Bento, Martins apparently voiced his desire to be completely free of Sporting’s influence and is happy to have a new deal and a new beginning at Benfica.

He was called up for a few international qualifiers but looked a bit over matched and didn’t ever cement his place as a viable player for Big Phil Scolari to take to the 2008 European Championships. He’ll be looking to further solidify himself as a presence in the midfield at Benfica and possibly impress whomever the new Portuguese boss will be to get another shot to try and break into the National Team’s midfield.

In another, unrelated Golden Whistle story, suspended Porto President Pinto da Costa’s primary accuser and ex-lover / hooker Carolina Salgado is under fire for apparently fabricating part of her testimony. I find it hard to believe that a person that would take money for sex and be a part of an extra marital affair would ever lie to anyone. As always, we’ll keep you updated as details emerge.

Kisses ALL AROUND. See you soon. You’re all unique snowflakes.

In the future, they hope to make the tournament a four team affair. Whether or not Porto participate in later iterations will be determined based on their disciplinary repercussions in light of the Golden Whistle scandal.

Congratulations to Benfica for creating something they may have a shot at winning, but knowing Mourinho he’ll probably be taking this token tournament just as seriously as the Champions League final. If it doesn’t work out for Benfica, they can always keep making shit up and just play lesser teams so they have a better shot of winning some sort of silverware.

All joking about Benfica aside, I’m really impressed with the work Rui Costa is doing behind the scenes. A lot of people thought it would be more of a figurehead type of position, but he’s grabbing the proverbial bull by the horns and is taking loads of pride and class to try and bring Benfica back into major prominence in the years to come. While one may not be a Benfica supporter, it is hard to argue against having at least the Big Three of Portugal competing on the highest of levels on the largest of stages.

The governing body announced today that it has accepted documented appeals from both Portuguese clubs and has been asked by the “plaintiffs” for a swift decision. Since the third qualifying round draw for the Champions League takes place August 1st, the CAS has to determine in the coming days whether or not it can render a verdict by the end of July.

UEFA boss Michel Platini recently slammed his own organization’s decision to allow Porto into the tournament this year. Platini has cited the fact that he feels that allowing the cheaters in does not follow the spirit of the law, even if it manages to be within the letter of said law.

Platini’s outrage aside, I think the CAS will still side with Porto on the grounds that it broke the law before the law was a law in the bylaws. Porto are going to get away with it, what’s new?

Kisses ALL AROUND. Enjoy your weekend.

F.C. Porto – Continue to raid Argentina and decided to backdoor Benfica on Cristian Rodríguez for a seven million Euro transfer. Benfica’s been dragging Porto and Portuguese football through the proverbial mud in Europe by sending every lawyer possible to argue their Champions League case to no avail, so Porto must enjoy the fact that they got some sort of small revenge here (aside from the fact that Benfica’s attempts were futile).

Ricky “Play Me Phil, I’m Better Than Simão” Quaresma is being feverishly linked with a move away from the Dragão. The most commonly mentioned suitors are Inter (who deny this connection over and over again) but Juventus, Chelsea, and Liverpool are apparently still in the running for the Cigano’s services.

Paulo Assunção used the Webster Law (long story short: player old enough and contracted long enough can buy out remaining part of agreement to become free) to scoot out early and is still looking for suitors with Atletico Madrid apparently leading the chase.

Sporting — Signed away Portuguese international striker Helder Postiga from Porto for 3.5 million Euros to add depth to an already decent strike force. Signed midfielder Izmailov to a long term deal as well as left back Grimi and Portuguese international defender (this past Euro excepted) Marco Caneira.

International midfielders Miguel Veloso and captain João Moutinho are constantly being linked with moves abroad. Veloso has admitted a liking for Milan while Moutinho is allegedly getting the standard sack rubbing from almost every big club in Europe. At least one of them will be gone by the time the season actually starts if not both. Emerging Sporting Midfielder = European Orgy.

Benfica – Condemned to the UEFA Cup this year, Benfica are trying to make some serious moves in the transfer and PR departments.

They opened the transfer season by signing midfielder Rui Costa up as their Football Director and he brought in seasoned boss Quique Flores. Aside from losing out on Cristian Rodríguez, they’ve brought in a number of intriguing signings. International new guy Jorge Ribeiro has been brought in as a defensive reinforcement. Carlos Martins was also signed as a replacement for Cristian Rodríguez and, in my opinion, probably a better player for the future.

Benfica are also, as of this writing, apparently moments away from announcing the five million Euro purchase of Javier Balboa, a winger from Real Madrid. Given the aggressive improvements and presence of Rui Costa, I’m happy with the fact that Benfica have not taken their UEFA Cup assignment laying down and are looking to restore the luster of years past.

We’ll hit on some of the smaller clubs and what to expect from the two new guys in town in the coming days. Until then… You better work.

Fear not! For I am back to making this my primary concern (after my dog and my Chelsea and ahead of my wife and job) from a blogging perspective. Tomorrow we’ll take a quick time machine forward and get you caught up on any transfers (mostly minor) that have taken place that I have neglected to mention as well as the usual witty banter you have come to expect from your fearless leader. Kisses ALL AROUND! See you tomorrow, bright and early.

Porto are found guilty of fixing games a few years back and they’re fined thirty dollars while losing six points in a season where they were ahead by a mile? Wow. How much did THOSE judges cost, Pinto da Costa?

And with the dearth of league news (basically worldwide) I’ve had to take whatever time I can to put all my effort into the second most important international tournament that also only comes along every four years. I hope the six of you who actually read this blog on a regular basis understand that without any real club/league content, it’s hard to balance work and putting a great deal of effort into the Portuguese National Team’s run for the Euro2008 championship.

Luckily for me, it’s Friday and while I play catch up from the rest of the week’s work I have piled up, I have managed to have two fantastic things for me at this moment: a lull in the action and a decent story worth discussing.

Now, Rob has already touched on this earlier today but since we’re a blog collective and not a newsroom stepping over one another to break a story, I’m sure he can appreciate my desire to put my two cents in here. Enough bullshit, on to the show…

UEFA’s appeals board have decided that Porto’s ban from Champions League play deserves another look see. Essentially, and if I have this fucked up I apologize, the appeals board has overturned the disciplinary board’s decision and asked the SAME board to reevaluate Porto’s case. I may be missing something here but, why send the case back to the same people who already banned the cheaters?

Unless the appeals board reviewed the decision and gave the disciplinary heads notes as to why and a different angle to consider, shouldn’t we expect the same result once the SAME people evaluate the SAME case? As Rob intimated in his conclusion, this bullshit wouldn’t even be considered if it weren’t Porto. If Champions League newcomers Vitória Guimarães (who stand to go straight to the group stages should Porto’s ban be upheld) were in the same predicament, the appeals board would use their case as a coaster rather than give it any real consideration.

On the other hand, I understand Porto’s argument that their infractions took place before the rule currently in question was actually on UEFA’s books. For me, Porto deserve this punishment simply because the Portuguese Football powers that be gave them a joke of a slap on the wrist with their six point deduction (to be applied to THIS year’s final point total when they were ahead by seven hundred points) and a fine that I could have paid for them with a month’s worth of change from my couch. UEFA is hopefully considering the FPF’s joke of a punishment and deciding they need to ban Porto this year and deny them the millions of Euros that come along with participating in such a tournament.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend and are enjoying watching Portugal march on. As the philosopher Winston Zeddemore has said regarding Big Phil’s side: “We’ve got the tools, we got the talent!” Força Portugal!!!