Present at the launch of the book We Are All Part – 10 Years of Opinion, by Luciano Gonçalves, President of the Portuguese Football Referees Association (APAF), Frederico Varandas fought for a “deep reform” in refereeing to avoid referee conditioning. .
“As president of Sporting, I advocate for a truly independent category of refereeing, and when I say independent, I mean independent of the clubs, the big ones, of Sporting, of any club. I advocate for arbitration that would obviously force a deep reform, but I defend that it is possible to remove refereeing It is the prerogative of the Federation – and I don’t question any personal issue with the chiefs. I think we should advocate for a more independent and transparent system and make sure that referees are not indirectly conditioned by any club,’ queried the Lions’ chief commander, looking at what was being done. done abroad.
“It is essential for Portuguese football to see these examples. The best of them is the Premier League. We should not be ashamed or afraid, but we have the courage to imitate what is good. And in the Premier League we have completely independent refereeing outside the club. I don’t want any president to be able to condition the referees or my rivals to be able to do it », concluded Frederico Varandas.
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