Porto Are Champions, But Are They Champions League?

By: Greg | May 15th, 2008

As we are all well aware at this point, Porto were “punished” for their involvement in match fixing and referee bribing during the 2003/04 season. The investigation, initially called “Golden Whistle” and then “Final Whistle” (kind of a Desert Shield/Storm type of thing) when the decisions were handed down, yielded a six point penalty to be applied to this year’s point total (a joke due to the twenty plus point lead they had) and a fine of 150,000 Euros (to be paid by a small fraction of Roman Abramovich’s most recent purchase).

However, since Porto’s point “penalty” didn’t land them out of the league’s top spot, they still held the position in the table required for qualification in the Champions League’s group stages. Second place Sporting gained the other automatic bid and surprise club Vitória Guimarães took third and will have to qualify for the group stages with Benfica left with a UEFA Cup spot in fourth. Probably already upset by the virtual tickling the court handed down on Porto as punishment, Benfica and V.Guimarães are pressing UEFA and the Portuguese Football Federation hard to have Porto’s Champions League berth stripped from them. Porto players and staff have shot back essentially saying “Fuck off, Benfica, you played shit football all season and didn’t earn a spot. We pwned the whole league, the point “penalty”(haha) is in effect, and we still managed to maintain our position and thus our rightful place in the Champions League.”

Now while I will tend to agree that Benfica do not deserve a spot based on the merit of their play this year, I think Porto don’t deserve a spot there either due to their lack of ethical operation. While the bribing and match fixing took place a whole four to five years ago, the club itself still has to pay for the illegal activity. Six points and 150,000 Euros is not payment. It’s a weekend in the Algarve for suspended Porto President Pinto da Costa.

Ultimately, the choice of Porto’s inclusion or absence in next year’s Champions League tournament is down to UEFA. They have already come forward and stated that they are taking all evidence into advisement and will make a decision no earlier than June 2nd. When that date rolls around, I think they’ll decided not to include Porto. Here’s why:

1. It’s the right thing to do, period.

2. The league dropped the ball on punishing Porto themselves and UEFA will not want to look as weak as the league did when they handed down the joke verdict.

3. Excluding Porto is in UEFA’s bylaws. Section 1.04, subsection (d) states: “it [a given club] must not be or have been involved in any activity aimed at arranging or
influencing the outcome of a match at national or international level;” Gee, I wonder who that applies to.

Points 1 and 2 are more emotional and ethical where point 3 is simple “letter of the law.” While some might say it’s not fair to punish the players who weren’t even around then and earned this berth, to you I say “Don’t worry, they won’t be punished.” If anyone plays halfway decent football in Portugal, your sale to a bigger club is a given over the summer. Hell, it could even shake out that, through sale abroad, the majority of the starting XI from this year’s wonder team will actually be on Champions League squads ANYWAYS next year.