Luciano Gonçalves gave, this Thursday, an extensive interview to RTP Notícias, in which he put everything in a ‘clean dish’, starting, from the outset, with the indignation expressed by Benfica at the explanations given by Cláudio Pereira for the expulsion of Jhon Durán (who would later be decriminalized), after the final whistle of the victory over Santa Clara, at the São Miguel Stadium, by 1-2.
“What the referee actually decided to do was to condemn an attitude, in the opinion of the refereeing team. As he was far away, he was unable to understand the words that were said by the player, but it was clear, in the opinion of the refereeing team, that the player’s action provoked all the anger of the opposing players, which is why that confusion was generated”, he began by stating.
“The Disciplinary Board will have the opportunity to call the referee again, question him and ask for explanations (…). I understand, mainly from the way it was written, the justification given. In my opinion, it could have been explained better. It would have had the same end, not least because the action could have been a yellow card for one of the players, the Benfica player would end up being sent off anyway because he already had a yellow card. As he is distant, he wanted to condemn the attitude, it provoked all that anger, but the way he wrote it certainly wasn’t the clearest for us to understand”, he added.
“I have no problem leaving. If I leave, I have a job, I don’t depend on this to live”
In this interview, the president of the Arbitration Council of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) also assured that, despite the dispute, he has no intention of resigning: “Football has strange things, the way football is treated outside the four lines is something that does little to value football itself and I recognize that this issue is causing harm to refereeing, but I also recognize that I did nothing for this”.
“I don’t suspend duties for two reasons, it’s not because I’m attached to the job, who comes from the base, who worked like I worked… I have no problem leaving. If I leave, I have a job, I don’t depend on it to live. I’ve lived with much less, actually nowadays I recognize that I earn well above the national average, around 13,000 euros gross, but I wasn’t the one who negotiated values. That’s what is paid”, he continued.
“I also do not suspend functions because the statutes of the FPF do not allow suspension, unless due to illness and if I never lied, I would not lie about illness either. Then, I was elected a year and a half ago by 70% of the electoral roll, and the third reason is that I did nothing to be in this position. If I am accused, I will remain, unless there is an accusation or it is proven, otherwise it would be simple and a very serious precedent”, he added.
“If you ask me if I would like, publicly, Pedro Proença to defend me or give me a word, naturally I would like it”
Finally, Luciano Gonçalves thanked Pedro Proença for his solidarity with him… even though he would have liked the FPF’s top leader to be more active: “Out of 79 measures planned, 30 completed, 30 in progress and the others missing, it was with me and this Arbitration Council that we went from nine referees with a professionalism project to 21, four assistant referees with professionalism, a record number of international referees and new 1200 referees”.
“About Pedro Proença, on a personal level the president has always been by my side, if he asked me if I would like him to publicly defend me or give me a word, naturally he would like it”, he concluded.
