Portuguese Refereeing Row Resurfaces Before Clássico
Clubs renew complaints over refereeing standards ahead of the season's first clássico, as officials scrap public ratings and TV explanations of disputed calls.
Suspicions over refereeing standards returned to the front pages in Portugal this week, and with them came the usual complaints from clubs about decisions going against them.
The season is still young, but the approach of the first clássico has pushed the volume up on every side of the argument. If there is a surprise in that, it is only that the row took this long to resurface.
What has changed is the process around it. There will be no public "satisfatório" or "insatisfatório" ratings handed down this time, and no television programmes setting out the doctrine followed by the Conselho de Arbitragem, or the Direção Técnica Nacional, on the incidents that prompted the loudest objections.
That is unlikely to settle anything.
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