Apito Dourado
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The ''Apito Dourado'' () affair is a sports
corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense that is undertaken by a person or an organization that is entrusted in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's gain. Corruption may involve activities ...
scandal in
Portuguese football Association football (), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese students a ...
that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (''
Polícia Judiciária The (; PJ; ) is the national criminal investigation police agency of Portugal, focused in fighting serious crimes, including homicides, kidnapping, organized crime, terrorism, illegal drug trade, corruption, cybercrime and financial crime. It i ...
'') investigators named several football personalities as suspects (''
arguido ''Arguido'' (; if male) or ''arguida'' (; if female), normally translated "named suspect" or "formal suspect", is a status in Portuguese type legal systems, including those of Portugal, Macau, Angola and Mozambique. It is given to a person whom t ...
s'') of corrupting or attempting to corrupt referees, including late
Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa Jorge Nuno de Lima Pinto da Costa (28 December 1937 – 15 February 2025) () was a Portuguese sports executive, who was president of Portuguese sports club FC Porto, Porto from 1982 until 2024. He was the president with most titles won (69) in t ...
, chairman of
FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...
(until 2024), and the former
Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese football, at the Estádio do B ...
chairman and
Portuguese League for Professional Football The Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (English: Portuguese Professional Football League), also known by its acronym LPFP, is a governing body that manages professional football club competitions in Portugal. It was founded in 1978 as Liga Po ...
President
Valentim Loureiro Valentim dos Santos de Loureiro ComM (born 24 December 1938 in Calde, Viseu) is a Portuguese politician and former football chairman of Boavista and Portuguese League for Professional Football. He has the rank of Major of the Portuguese Army. ...
. Although less notorious, a major part of the affair involved lower division referees and clubs, namely
UD Sousense União Desportiva Sousense ''(abbreviated as UD Sousense)'' is a Portuguese football club based in Foz de Sousa, Gondomar in the district of Porto. Background UD Sousense currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal which is the third tier ...
and
Gondomar S.C. Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2. ...
, and club officials. In December 2006, Pinto da Costa's former partner
Carolina Salgado Carolina Salgado (born 14 March 1977) is a Portuguese public figure best known for being a former partner of FC Porto's long-time chairman Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, and subsequently as a witness in '' Apito Dourado''.
published the book '' Eu, Carolina'' ("Me, Carolina"), in which she made serious accusations against him. Pinto da Costa called these accusations "absurd" and said he would address them in court. Salgado's book caused the two cases in which Pinto da Costa was involved that had already been dismissed to be re-opened. In March 2008,
Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...
's Tribunal de Instrução Criminal decided that one of these cases, concerning a match between FC Porto and
Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...
where Pinto da Costa delivered an envelope containing €2,500 to a referee, would proceed to trial. The other major case involving FC Porto and Pinto da Costa, regarding a match between FC Porto and
Estrela da Amadora Club Football Estrela Amadora SAD (), sometimes just Estrela da Amadora, is a Portuguese professional sports club (predominantly football) based in Amadora, northwest of Lisbon. The team is currently competing in the Primeira Liga, after winnin ...
, where FC Porto offered prostitutes to the match referees, was dismissed for the second time in June 2008 and the main accusation witness, Salgado, accused of perjury. In July 2008, Valentim Loureiro was found guilty of abuse of power but not guilty of corruption. He was sentenced to three years and two months of suspended jail time. In May 2008, the disciplinary committee of the Portuguese Professional Football League, who had opened a parallel non-criminal proceeding called ''Apito Final'' (Final Whistle), sentenced Pinto da Costa to a two-year suspension and FC Porto was docked six points in the
Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...
and fined €150,000 for attempted bribery; Boavista FC was sentenced to relegation for bribery and referee coercion, and fined €180,000;
União de Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Está ...
lost three points and its chairman, João Bartolomeu, was sentenced to a one-year suspension. FC Porto recovered those points in July 2017. In January and October 2010, many of the Apito Dourado
wiretaps Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...
were uploaded to
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
.


Chronology

On 20 April 2004, the Apito Dourado operation was triggered, leading to the arrest of 16 people, including club officials and referees. Among them were the then
Portuguese League for Professional Football The Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (English: Portuguese Professional Football League), also known by its acronym LPFP, is a governing body that manages professional football club competitions in Portugal. It was founded in 1978 as Liga Po ...
President and Mayor of Gondomar,
Valentim Loureiro Valentim dos Santos de Loureiro ComM (born 24 December 1938 in Calde, Viseu) is a Portuguese politician and former football chairman of Boavista and Portuguese League for Professional Football. He has the rank of Major of the Portuguese Army. ...
, the then Chairman of the Refereeing Board,
José António Pinto de Sousa José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...
, and the then chairman of
Gondomar S.C. Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2. ...
,
José Luís Oliveira José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...
. On 2 December, the
Judiciary Police The judicial police, judiciary police, or justice police are (depending on both country and legal system) either a branch, separate police agency or type of duty performed by law enforcement structures in a country. The term judiciary police is mo ...
was supposed to conduct a search at Pinto da Costa's home, but the Chairman of
FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...
had been previously informed by a source in the Judiciary Police, clearing the site beforehand. On the next day, Pinto da Costa presented himself willingly in the Court of Gondomar for questioning, and was released on a 200,000 euro bail. On 20 April 2005, the "fruit affair", named as such because of the "fruit" (a codeword for prostitutes) which was used in tapped phone calls, involving FC Porto's chairman Pinto da Costa offering prostitutes to referee
Jacinto Paixão Jacinto is a Spanish and Portuguese given name meaning Hyacinth, which can refer to Saint Hyacinth, a Roman martyr ( Hyacinth and Protus), or the Hyacinth flower itself. Common English nicknames for "Jacinto" are "Jack", "Jason" and "Jesse". Ja ...
before the match between FC Porto and
Estrela da Amadora Club Football Estrela Amadora SAD (), sometimes just Estrela da Amadora, is a Portuguese professional sports club (predominantly football) based in Amadora, northwest of Lisbon. The team is currently competing in the Primeira Liga, after winnin ...
, was dropped. In January 2006, the Apito Dourado affair proceeded in Gondomar, and the public prosecution filed charges against 27 people, including Valentim Loureiro, José Oliveira and Pinto de Sousa. By December,
Carolina Salgado Carolina Salgado (born 14 March 1977) is a Portuguese public figure best known for being a former partner of FC Porto's long-time chairman Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, and subsequently as a witness in '' Apito Dourado''.
, former partner of Pinto da Costa, published the book '' Eu, Carolina'' ("Me, Carolina"), in which she revealed new data about the case, mainly sports corruption situations, tax fraud, breach of judicial secrecy, assaults, perjury and obstruction to justice. This caused the court to reopen several court cases. The court cases related to the FC Porto - Estrela da Amadora and
Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...
- FC Porto were reopened in early 2007. The first match involved FC Porto offering prostitutes to Jacinto Paixão (the referee); the second match involved Pinto da Costa delivering
Augusto Duarte Augusto is an Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish given name or surname. Derived from Augustus, meaning in Latin "majestic," "the increaser," or "venerable", it is notable as being the name of the first emperor of Ancient Rome. The Greek translation ...
(the referee) an envelope containing 2,500 euro in order for him to benefit FC Porto. The affair became known as the "envelope affair". In March 2007, the judiciary team responsible for the Apito Dourado affair announced that 56 inquiries were underway. In July, judge
Maria José Morgado Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
revealed that 20 charges were produced. In March 2008, FC Porto was indicted for the corruption cases in the matches against Beira-Mar and Estrela da Amadora. For the same reason,
Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...
and Boavista were also indicted for bribering the referees of the matches against Benfica and Marítimo, and the match against Estrela da Amadora, respectively. In October 2008, the court filed the case against Pinto da Costa, Augusto Duarte,
Rui Alves Rui Filipe Alves Oliveira (; born 5 September 1996) is a Portuguese cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He competed in the scratch event at the 2015 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. His twin brother, Ivo Oliveira, is also an ...
and António Araújo regarding the Nacional - Benfica match. In March, the public prosecution asked for the conviction of Pinto da Costa, António Araújo and Augusto Duarte regarding the FC Porto - Beira-Mar match.


Criminal court decisions

In June 2007, 13 of the 24 suspects in the Gondomar part of the affair, mainly related to lower division football, were convicted of charges comprising corruption, influence peddling and abuse of power. Valentim Loureiro was sentenced to three years and two months of suspended penalty for abuse of power, and lost his position of mayor of Gondomar. José Luís Oliveira, chairman of Gondomar SC and vice-chairman of the city of Gondomar was found guilty of 25 crimes of abuse of power and 10 crimes of corruption, and was sentenced to three years of suspended penalty. Pinto de Sousa was found guilty of 25 crimes of abuse of power and convicted to three years of suspended penalty. João Macedo, António Eustáquio, Jorge Saramago (all three of them referees) were sentenced to pay a fine. The court considered proven that all three of them had received gold objects but that did not mean that the referees had breached the rules of the game of football association. It also stated that it was impossible to prove in which situation of a match the referee was acting intentionally in case of error. Barbosa da Cunha, João Soares Mesquita, Ricardo Pinto, Carlos Carvalho, Valente Mendes, José Manuel Rodrigues, Sérgio Sedas, José Agostinho Silva and Leonel Viana were all acquitted by the Gondomar court. On 3 April 2009, Pinto da Costa was acquitted on all criminal charges related to the Beira-Mar-FC Porto match of the 2003–04 season.


Apito Final

In 2007, the Portuguese League of Football started a non-criminal process calling it ''Apito Final'' (Final Whistle). On 9 May 2008, Boavista were relegated to the second-tier
Liga de Honra The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier ...
for bribery and referee coercion and FC Porto were docked six points for attempted bribery. This caused
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
's Control and Disciplinary Body to ban FC Porto from the
2008–09 UEFA Champions League The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009. ...
. This decision was later annulled by UEFA's Appeals Body, meaning FC Porto was admitted to the competition. The Portuguese League has also sentenced Pinto da Costa to a two-year suspension;
João Loureiro João Eduardo Pinto de Loureiro (Porto, Portugal, 9 October 1963) was the president of the board (chairman) of the Portuguese football club Boavista FC, from the 2nd January 2013 until the 28th December 2018. Now he is the President of the General ...
, Boavista's chairman and Valentim Loureiro's son, to a four-year suspension; and João Bartolomeu,
União de Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Está ...
chairman, to a one-year suspension. Five referees have also been suspended. All the clubs, chairmen, and referees punished filed appeals, except for FC Porto, whose punishment did not prevent them from winning the Portuguese League title. In May 2011, the Central Administrative Court of the South of Portugal ruled that the decision of taking six points from FC Porto's global classification in the 2007–08 season, as well as the suspension of FC Porto's president, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa for two years, both confirmed in 2008 on a controversial meeting made by the Justice Council of the Portuguese Football Federation, were to be ruled as "inexistent", due to the fact that those decisions were taken by a small number of the remaining counselors, after the meeting had been declared finished by the council's president, and acting behind the President's and the Vice-president's back, as they were absent by then. The Portuguese Football Federation has announced it would appeal from this decision to the Administrative Supreme Court. Pinto da Costa was acquitted of corruption in relation to the match between FC Porto and Estrela da Amadora 2003–04 on 23 September 2014. The Justice Council (FPF) president acquitted the FC Porto president of "the practice of infringement disciplinary very serious corruption (...) in the form of trial." Also Jacinto Paixão, at the date first category referee, was acquitted of the practice of "very serious disciplinary infraction of corruption of the refereeing team", along with the remaining technical team: José Carlos Gladim Chilrito and Manuel António Candeias Square. The Disciplinary Commission of the League, now the professional section of the Disciplinary Council of the Portuguese Football Federation, ignored the wiretaps as evidence.


Wiretaps

Several conversations between suspects were recorded during the Apito Dourado investigation, and many of them show talks about referee nominations and performances and briberies. After the acquittal decisions, several wiretaps were released on YouTube and immediately went viral. Some of the most notorious ones include: * A conversation (hours before the FC Porto-Estrela da Amadora match on 24 January 2004) between FC Porto's chairman, Pinto da Costa, and football agent António Araújo, in which Araújo asks for Pinto da Costa's authorization to send "fruit to sleep with" (a codeword for prostitutes) to JP (codename for Jacinto Paixão, the match referee). Pinto da Costa states in that conversation that "fruit" has already been sent. Four years later, a video recording emerged that showed a confession by Jacinto Paixão, in which he confesses to the usual practice of accepting prostitutes and paid trips to either benefit FC Porto (against Académica) or harm Benfica (against
Moreirense Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim d ...
). Jacinto Paixão states in the video that he recorded such confession in case something should happen to him or his family. * Conversations between Pinto da Costa, António Araújo and Augusto Duarte (a referee), where the three arrange a meeting at Pinto da Costa's house. This took place two days before Augusto Duarte was refereeing the match between FC Porto and Beira-Mar. Pinto da Costa stated that this visit was due to the fact that the referee Augusto Duarte was seeking family advice from him. That the meeting had taken place was proven in court; however, the motive for it was not clear, so the charge was dismissed. * A conversation between
Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...
president, Sequeira Nunes, and Pinto de Sousa, chairman of the Refereeing Board, which took place on 24 March 2004, where the former denounces to the latter that Nacional's president, Rui Alves, is offering prostitutes to Nacional's matches' referees in order to benefit Nacional. A month prior to that conversation, Rui Alves complains to António Araújo that Nacional has not won a match refereed by Augusto Duarte for a long time. Araújo then asks for Rui Alve's permission to "work" the referee in order to benefit Nacional against Benfica. Three days later, Araújo phones Alves to inform him that everything was in place. Nacional won the match against Benfica (3–2).


Aftermath

The Apito Dourado process was a major event in Portuguese football and made international headlines at the time. Pinto da Costa, the most notorious suspect, was not convicted by the criminal court system, although being convicted by the Portuguese League's disciplinary committee to a two-year ban. FC Porto was convicted by the league's disciplinary committee to a six-point loss and ordered to pay a €150,000 fine. Despite no heavy convictions of penalties, the scandal seriously damaged Portuguese football's and FC Porto's reputation. Santiago Segurola,
Marca Marca may refer to: Places * Marca, Sălaj, a commune in Sălaj County, Romania * Marca, a tributary of the Barcău in Sălaj County, Romania * an alternative name for Merca, Somalia * Marca District, in the province Recuay, Peru * Marçà, a vil ...
's assistant director stated in 2008, "It is terrible what is happening to football (...) In the last few years proven corruption cases have emerged from Italy and Portugal (...) There are people who want to win so much that they are willing to break the rules in the most obscene ways. One of the things that surprises the most is that they (the teams involved) are always the same:
Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...
, Porto..." The Apito Dourado scandal not only hit Portuguese football but also the whole Portuguese criminal procedure system. One of the big controversies was the fact that the prosecutors had "no doubts" about the Judiciary Police tipping off Pinto da Costa to clear his office hours before the conduction of a search. However, since the source of the leak was unable to be identified, the accusation was dismissed. The court decision which convicted lower division referees to fines has been subject of controversies. One of them is the justification it gave for not considering golden object offers to referees as relevant evidence. A wide debate has also been sparked between the right to privacy (invoked in this case as part of a claim that the unauthorized wiretaps were unusable evidence) and the demand for a more severe justice, regardless of the privacy rights of crime suspects. The codewords used in the wiretaps have since become common Portuguese football jargon, expressions such as "''fruta para dormir''" ("fruit to sleep with", a codeword for prostitutes), "dark coffee" and "latte" (referring to the skin tone of the prostitutes), "''rebuçado''" (literally translated as "candy") being used by both supporters and club officials to mock and attack clubs related to the Apito Dourado wiretaps, such as FC Porto, Boavista FC, CD Nacional and Gondomar SC.
CMTV Correio da Manhã TV (CMTV) is a private Portuguese generalist channel, with a strong focus on news - specially crime and sensationalist subjects - and football. It is operated by Medialivre Medialivre S.A. (formerly Cofina Media) is a Port ...
started a series about Apito Dourado in 2013, regarding the 10th anniversary of the scandal, by airing the already known wiretaps as well as releasing previously unknown ones.


References


Further reading

*


External links


Apito Dourado news at ''Público''
(archived) {{Match fixing in association football Football in Portugal Match fixing in association football Corruption in Portugal