Porto Out of Next Season’s Champions League

By: Greg | June 4th, 2008

There’s no way of putting it other than what the title suggests. As a result of the information submitted to UEFA by the Portuguese football ruling body, UEFA have decided to suspend Porto’s participation for one year in the Champions League competition.

From what I can tell based on a number of sources coming across the newswire, Porto essentially screwed themselves by not appealing the verdict and admitting guilt. Since UEFA has provisions in their bylaws that prevent participation in the Champions League by clubs found to be subversive as Porto were, the decision was made to exclude the Dragons and thus marks the first REAL punishment handed down to the team as a whole. The six point deduction which the league took from their massive total at the end of this past season as “punishment” was nothing short of a huge fucking joke.

Porto have three days to appeal and will more than likely lose that since, as mentioned before, they decided not to appeal the Golden Whistle punishment thus admitting guilt. While it may be a sad day for Porto fans, a few clubs will be thrilled at this news. Namely:

Vitoria Guimarães - Finished 3rd in the league, and qualified for the 3rd stage of Qualifiers for the Champions League. They now will go straight into the group stages for the first time ever.

Benfica - Finished a disappointing 4th in the league and qualified for the UEFA Cup. They will now start off in the same place as last year, the 3rd stage of Qualifiers for the Champions League.

Braga - Finished, by recent standards, a disappointing 7th in the league and qualified for the Intertoto Cup. I’m sure they won’t be throwing out an invite to the UEFA Cup.

Belenenses - Finished 8th (also somewhat disappointing given recent standards) after a six point deduction due to an illegal transfer scandal. They now qualify for the Intertoto Cup.

We can argue the merits of a club like Benfica making the Champions League not necessarily based on their on field results but on the corruption of others until we’re blue in the face. Still, the fact remains, Porto’s indiscretion has led to the benefit of many a Portuguese team when it comes to European competition for the coming year.