Sporting ex-chief acquitted of inciting attack on players

The ex-president of Sporting Lisbon was acquitted yesterday of inciting a violent attack by fans on the soccer team’s players two years ago, as the Portuguese court sentenced nine of the attackers to five years behind bars each.

In May 2018 a group of hooded Sporting fans armed with sticks and belts attacked players at the club’s training ground after the team failed to qualify for the Champions League. Several players, including Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio and Dutch forward Bas Dost, quit Sporting as a result.

Bruno de Carvalho, who was voted out as president in June 2018, often used social media to criticise his players but had denied inciting any violence. “I’m innocent, they should have trusted me,” Carvalho said after he was cleared. “I gave everything to Sporting, I often put the club ahead of my life, my family. No citizen deserves to go through what I went through.”

Sporting is one of Portugal’s big three clubs, along with Benfica and Porto, having won the Primeira Liga 18 times. A total of 44 people were accused of various crimes following the attack. Nine of the defendants were sentenced to five years in prison, and 29 others were handed five-year suspended sentences.

One of the defendants given a suspended sentence confessed in court to having hit Dost with a belt during the attack. Three other defendants were ordered to pay fines.

LINZ DOCKED SIX POINTS FOR BREAKING CORONAVIRUS RULES

Austrian league leaders LASK Linz have had six points deducted for breaking coronavirus rules regarding training sessions, the APA news agency and other Austrian media said yesterday. Linz were reported to the league’s disciplinary tribunal for staging team practice sessions two weeks ago when they were only allowed to be training in small groups.

The case came to light after several rival clubs said they had received videos of the practice sessions.

The club apologised at the time and said they felt it was safe to hold team sessions as the entire squad had repeatedly tested negative for the virus.

Linz were handed a 12-point deduction but all teams’ points tallies are halved at the end of the regular season when they are split into two groups of six, with the top six playing for the title and the remainder to avoid relegation. As a result, Linz’s deduction was reduced to six. The punishment means Linz, who had 27 points from 22 games before the decision.