Golden Whistle Finally Being Blown?

By: Greg | March 26th, 2008

carolina A tribunal in Porto decided yesterday that there was enough justification for moving forward in a corruption trial against Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa. For those of you not familiar with the Apito Dourado or “Golden Whistle” investigation, Wiki’s got a good, quick summary:

The Apito Dourado (”Golden Whistle”) affair is a corruption sports scandal in Portuguese football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária) investigators accused several football personalities of corrupting referees, including Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa[1], chairman of F.C. Porto, and former Boavista F.C. chairman and Portuguese League for Professional Football president Valentim Loureiro[2], whose names were linked by the media to the scandal.[3]

In December 2006, Pinto da Costa’s former partner Carolina Salgado published the book Eu, Carolina (”I, Carolina”) where she made serious accusations against him.[4] Pinto da Costa deemed these accusations “absurd” and said he would talk about them in court.[5].

Portuguese football is about as synonymous with corruption as Ronaldinho is with neglecting proper dentistry and orthodontics. A whole hell of a lot of people feel very strongly against Porto and their head honcho Pinto da Costa. The dislike for the man runs so deeply that João Botelho and Leonor Pinhão, a pair of Benfica fans even went so far as to make a movie called Corrupção based on Carolina Salgado’s book. Check out the trailer for the aforementioned movie below, as well as a more informative investigatory piece on the situation as a whole.

While you wait for the U21 Euro qualifier vs Bulgaria at 12:30 Eastern and the Selecção’s last friendly (vs Greece 3:30 Eastern) before the European Championships this summer, pass the time with the YouTubage below and remember kids, hell hath no fury like a former hooker scorned!