It started as a case, it won chapter after chapter, it became a soap opera, it lasted more than one season, now it has come to an end: the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation decided to present the complaint that Benfica had filed following up on the whole process and thus ended up with the only point that was still open a long war which mainly involved a player (João Palhinha), a club (Sporting) and the Portuguese Football Federation (through the Disciplinary Council).
The complaint had been filed by the rojiblancos on February 8, 2021, subsequently leading to the opening of an investigation process opened by the Federation’s Disciplinary Council that continued as usual for the League’s Instruction Commission. Now, and regarding a complaint that had as its object “alleged illegalities in the player’s appeal before the state courts and possible participation / irregular use of a player”, the process has been archived because it was Palhinha and not Sporting who advanced the appeal to the common courts, and in the regulations only clubs can be sanctioned in this context.
“After the instruction was concluded, whose direction and closure is regulated by the League Instructors Commission, he referred the process to the Disciplinary Board on 05.23.2022, containing the presentation proposal, considering that there are no indications of disciplinary offense, a few days before the prescription, without even proposing the urgency of the present case and after the case has been stopped without any reason from the final decision (of 02.10.2022) of the STA in the so-called ‘Palhinha case’”, indicates the pronouncement of the Disciplinary Council of the Federation in this regard.
“On 06.06. 2022, the Disciplinary Council decided to close the investigation process as the behaviors in question, even without value, do not have a regulatory provision, to the extent that the regulations only allow sanctions when the club files an appeal before the common courts. In this case, the appeal was filed by the player, despite the fact that the club benefited from both the filing and the decision, so this Council cannot integrate such a gap by analogy, since it aggravates the responsibility of the parties. , it is only up to the competent authorities to approve the RD to rule on the fairness and justice of the current regulatory solution”, adds the same letter.
In this way, and almost 500 days later, the so-called “Pahinha case” comes to an end, after the Disciplinary Board explained in February of this year, after the victory it obtained in the Supreme Administrative Court, that there had been an “irremediable harm” and, as such, the player could not be subject to any sanction, although it was later confirmed that he served a series of five yellow cards.
Rewinding the film, Palhinha participated as a used substitute at Boavista-Sporting in January 2021, having seen a yellow card that would be the fifth in the Championship. Fábio Veríssimo, later heard by Fábio Veríssimo in the evaluation of the appeal presented by the lions, assumed the error but the midfielder could not be decriminalized from that same card. Thus, Palhinha filed a new appeal before the Sports Arbitration Court (TAD), requesting a precautionary measure that was granted by the South Central Administrative Court. That is, the punishment was “frozen” and the international could be used in the derby against Benfica, as it turned out despite being used again from the bench.
Subsequently, between several chapters and the long judicial war between the parties, the TAD decided to annul the sanction but not the yellow one, and the South Central Administrative Court ratified the understanding of the Disciplinary Council of the Federation, unanimously emphasizing that it was of a matter that it belonged strictly to the sports field and that neither the TAD nor the president of the Central Administrative Court of the South had decision-making powers. There was also an appeal to the Supreme Administrative Court, which confirmed said decision, putting an end to the case in that context.
“The decision of the STA, which confirms the understanding of the Portuguese Football Federation, is final. However, in accordance with the provisions of article 165, section 4 of the RDLPFP, “The suspension for accumulation of yellow cards (…) is carried out exclusively (…) in the current sports season”, said suspension sanction has its scope of execution was restricted at the time of showing the yellow card, thus preventing the suspension sanction applied to the player Palhinha from being carried out”, explained the Disciplinary Council in a February statement. “From the foregoing, it follows that the decisions made by the TAD and by the then President Judge of the TCA-Sul in the so-called ‘Pahinha case’, mistakenly consider themselves competent to judge strictly sports matters, they took away the useful meaning of the disciplinary decision that had been made, irrevocably damaging, and despite the decision now taken unanimously by the STA, the operation of sports justice in the specific case, “he added.
Source: Observadora
