It has been cleared that Portugal and 3 of it's players have received punishments and of a great deal.
Abel Xavier has been banned from International Play for 9 months and will miss 3 or 4 World Cup Qualifiers. He will also miss UEFA Championship play for the most part of it.

Nuno Gomes has been banned from International play for 8 months and will miss SL Benfica's UEFA Cup matches, not all games but some.

Paulo Bento will miss 6 months of International Play.

I think this outrageous punishment.

UEFA=FASCIST ORGANIZATION
FIFA=SAME THING
ever was, as long as Blatter's around, ever will be

Rocky, where did you get this from ? Also, how can someone be banned for some but not all uefa cup matches ? Did he get 3 match ban, or only a vs French team ban ?

Kiil4Benfica, since when has Portugal been regarded as a small nation ?
And I will stand up for , not UEFA, but for the refereeing in this tournament. It has been good, in fact, it's has been near excellent. And that includes the Portugal-France and Holland-Italy games. What in the Holland game bothered you ? The sending off ? Yes, definitely an injustice, how can a player be sent off for two very clear and bookable offences ( and that second challenge was so late it can be classified as an off the ball incident as well ) ? The penalties ? This must be the only tournament I've seen that refs have given penalties for shirt tugging, something which should be done more often. Sorry, but the refs have done well, it's just that nations that usually get away with similar fouls and such have not been as fortunate here.
As for it being a disgrace to ban them, can't agree. They behaved shamefully, and Kill4benfica, it was the players of portugal, not the fans. If you look at the yugoslavia game, at the end the yugoslavian players tried to help the ref from their own fans.

u r both right, FIFA+UeFA love big nations and see small nations as dipensible. Ireland were fined after thay played turkey, by Uefa, for no valid resaon.

The only small country they love is switzerland, and thets 'coz there both based in Zurich or Geneva

It's a complete disgrace, they even claimed that the ref and linesman suffered severe bruises and scratches, which seems like absolute bullsh!t, this is the first case i've ever seen of verbal insults causing bodily harm, ridiculous. The ref in the Yugoslavia-Spain game gets hit in the eye by a coin, Turkish, German, and English fans run wild in the streets and all UEFA does to them is issue warnings. This is just a case of UEFA making an example of a small nation, I seriously doubt a country like France would have been penalized in this way.

......and UEFA made it their corruption obvious in the Holland-Italy game, they wanted a France-Holland final from the begining and the ref did everything under the sun to try and screw Italy out of the final.

To illustrate my point:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/soccer/world/2000/euro2000/news/2000/07/02/bests_worsts/

Worst behavior by team: Portugal.

Abused and jostled linesman and referee after penalty award to France in semifinal for Abel Xavier's handball. Abel Xavier, Nuno Gomes, who was sent off for his protest, and Paul Bento all received heavy suspensions from UEFA.

If the referees wanted a France-Holland final so bad because of the size of the country, then why in the first place, would they choose Holland as a favourite? Being one of the smaller countries out there (outrageously smaller compared to Italy), I think you are suffering from an inferiority complex...

The reason they punished those players is because: well, they committed a crime.

Olà Voltaire, a CRIME!!!
What you wanna do: lock them up?

And I think you're suffering from a moron complex, when they say a "small country" they don't mean it litterally by size, but by revenue to be gained from TV, marketing, etc..

Even the great Pele has expressed his sympathy for the Portuguese players saying that in a situation like that, it's human to have an emotional outburst. And yes, we Portuguese ARE human even though Voltaire and Canoe may not agree. Take at look at this photo, it clearly shows the linesman had his view blocked, or at least blocked enough that he shouldn't have made such a crucial call at that point in the game...http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/bd/main.htm Anyways, that's all history now, we'll be back in 2002 and 2004 to teach another football lesson to Germany and England.

FIFA, is a bunch of crap! All countries that have won the World cup at some point would get automatic pass to the world cup, all exept Uruguay (Or so I heard). That's a bunch of horse dung! Either all go or none go!

I hate having to cut to the chase like this http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif but:

Shut up and listen, Portugese fans. Lets all sit down and watch the semi-final on tape, shall we? Lets fast-forward through Portugal's goal, the equaliser, the handball incident, and lets play some slo-mo footage of what actually went on. Yes, rose-tinted specs off. Luis Figo, despite the possibility of the game continuing should Zidane miss, takes his shirt off and storms off the pitch. Portugese players surround the referee. Nuno Gomes is all over him, a perverted graduate with his prom date. When he gets sent off, watch the reaction from the player standing behind him. He chops the referee's arm to bring the card down. A headbutt is aimed at the referee. Elbows go into his midriff.

This is behaviour that we should condone then? We should just see it as one massive conspiracy against Portugal because they are obviously hard done by. The facts are these:

- The ball hit Abel Xavier's hand
- Abel Xavier was inside the penalty area
- Right or wrong, the referee and assistant referee agreed on giving the penalty
- The rules of the game state that once a decision is made, it should not be reneged on
- Portugese players buffeted and abused the referee and assistant referee
- The rules of the game state that players should accept decisions
- The rule of the game state that players should not 'be physical' with the referee or his assistants

The rules were broken on that pitch, and as such there can be no quarrels with the punishment. If there had been no punishments, what kind of Pandora's Box would UEFA be opening? Would we see players running after referees that send players off? Would we look on as goalkeepers push the fourth official around for adding on that extra minute in which the equaliser was scored? The authorities had no option. Paolo Di Canio did something very similar to this to Paul Durkin - he was banned from all competition for three months. UEFA's punishments are tougher, but this can only be a good thing - examples must be made.

At the end of the day, the Portugese haven't got a leg to stand on. We can look back on that videotape and see for all the world that they contravened the rules, and for that they must pay whatever price UEFA deems fair.

drinky,

Let me tell u that in football, there is such a thing as accidental handball. If this occurs than the 'foul' cannot be called, so no free kick should happen.

Is a 7 month ban for 'mentally and verbally' abusing a ref (this is what P.Bento got) really fair.


I think not
chris

Drinky....
first of all.. it is obvious that you have had one too many drinks...so cut down on the drinking...
secondly it is obvious that you are either French, German, English, Turkish or even Romanian.
What's your problem? I am portuguese.. i know it was a handball... but outrageous punishments like these are stupid.
I bet you UEFA plan on taking the Championships from us in 2004 as well...
UEFA just doesnt like pOrtugal and it is obvious you don't either...
and stop putting your nose where it doesn't belong... go manage something else....!!!

That's right Drinky, you moron, how dare you try to bring some sense into this post!

http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

Now, now, Kill4Benfica,
I said you had an inferiority complex, I did not resort to name-calling...but since you ar e probably a delinquent, I will forgive you...

Of course, Pele says it's human to get emotional, but I seriously doubt that Pele condones ATTACKING the referee for a bad call...look at Germany...do you think they are a "small" football country? In the world cup (especially against Croatia), I honestly do not think the referee cared about the football prestige of Germany...

If those 3 Portuguese were REAL men, they would have attacked the French goalie with shots, rather than attack the referee with physical violence...

I have to agree with Drinky on this one. The moment a player comes in contact with a match official, he has crossed the line and should be punished accordingly. And even if no contact had been made, the fact that the Portuguese players surrounded the referee in a menacing fashion and verbally assaulted him should result in some type of punishment. I mean, how often does that sort of thing actually result in the match official changing his mind? What's the point? I applaud UEFA's action in this case. Now if only the English FA would learn from this example and take appropriate action when Roy Keane and his Manchester United teammates decide to surround and threaten a referee who has dared to award a penalty against them.

Everybody says look at the replay it shows he touched it with his hand, well I'm not deniy that but what I disagree with everybody is that it wasn't intetional. STOP watch in slow-mo, watch it REAL TIME and then tell me with a split second to decide if he did on purpose, and another thing even if you were to try to stop the ball with your hip your hand still would move as if you are trying to handle the ball, SO I WANT EVERYBODY ON THEIR ON TIME TO TRY THAT SITUATION OUT< USE YOUR HIP AND THEN NOTICE IT SEEMS LIKE YOUR HAND MOVES. ANother thing that is way way to long for a suspension. The players didn't beat the **** out of the ref. SO just consider this how would you feel if you were playing the biggest game of your life and then have a linesman who only makes a call after the french players start bitching, taken away from you

UEFA and FIFA are fascists!??

Yeah RIGHT! Those two organizations wouldn't know right-wing if it struck them in the face. They are hard core SOCIALISTS!

Every move they make promotes globalisation and federalisation. UEFA is a mere hand-puppet of the EU. I can guarantee that if the Torys take control, England will never see another World Cup for years to come.

Voltaire.... ahh forget it. No point in arguing about this anymore, it's history now.

We won't be any weaker by these suspensions, there are other players who can easily take the place of these three who up until the tournament were pretty much "B" team players. You'll see us again in 2002.

hey kill4benfica

Where on that site can I find that photo of the linesmen with his vision blocked. If anyone as a photo like that could they send it to me.

I think that's all a little exadurated, same with the alleged bruises and scratches the ref and linesman suffered. It's not like any team has never heavily protested a controversial call before. Maybe you'd be happier if they banned Portugal from all international competitions for the next 25 years, or how about jail time for the players? You always seem to be ready to dump on Portugal but you've never even mentioned who you support?

I think that Portugal are a great team.
I really like Nuno Gomes(no. 21 he played at euro 2000).
I think that the Portugal players went a bit "over the top",they did pull the ref's shirt but they should have been fined but not banned.
Btw weren't all thse 3 players not just banned from international football but also champs.league and notional competition??
FIFA&UEFA are nothing but stinky old suits who only care about the money!

greetz
Phil

I'm not too sure now Portuga2004, that site updates everyday, so you might have to look in the archives if that site has a section like that. It just shows Wiltord right in front of Xavier, and the linesman wayyyy off in the distance. He must have had x-ray binoculars or something.

I agree with the punishement, it is not really so bad at the most these players will miss what 2 or 3 games in WC qualifying and Uefa games? This shows to the players: don't act stupid toward the ref or you will pay high consequences.

As far as intentional or not it doesn't matter, if the ball was going in the direction of the net it was the right call. Also don't dump on the side ref, he made the right call in a tough situation. Why are we still argueing this when the right call was made? Oh yeah and I saw this photo of the ref being supposedly blocked out and it shows no such thing, it proved absolutely nothing except that Xavier definitely handled the ball!

[This message has been edited by PolishPower (edited 07-04-2000).]

I also have to agree with what drinky said earlier. I was there and allthough we couldn´t hear anything, we could see what some Portugese players did and it was not very nice. It is a pitty because Portugal, finally with a scoring centre forward, were the sparkling "new" team, until that penalty call. They really went berzerk. I haven´t seen any team doing that after they lost a crucial match in this tournament. "Normal because of the cirumstances", no way! They are all professionals and this kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated. I understand the disappointment, believe me, but I also can´t agree with that kind of behaviour. And it WAS there for the world to see. The fact that the Portugese FA didn´t really protest says it all....

The punishment for the Portuguese is absolutely unfair. It's impossible not to react like they reacted when the ref gave that funny penalty in the semi-final.
And, Drinky, you that you so much worship the rules what would you do if somebody insulted you? Wouldn't you beat the **** out of him rather than suing him as the rules say.

LOL

If someone insults you, use some self control and ignore them. You idiot http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif

First of all it is more than 2 or 3 games.
Secondly...
I can gurantee that if your country faced the same problem and controversial call you would stand up for them and say "ohh it wasn't a penalty and it was this... and that...."
whatever... you guys just don't like portugal..!

What's funny is how English and Turkish fans run wild in the streets tearing up everything in thier path, but now after this incident, we're the ones being portrayed as mindless barbarians. Did those players over react, hmm, yeah maybe a little, but now it's over and they have been suspended, I don't know what more you want from us, should the entire team line up and take turns kissing the poor linesman's ass?? I think not. Soory, we're a passiontate people, we have latin blood pumping through our veins, Italians and Brazilians will know what I mean. Everybody liked us when we were humble, now that we've shown some balls, everyone's ready to come rub our noses in our mistakes.

.......and to add insult to injury, France has been given the FairPlay award for the tournament....this the team who didn't kick the ball out of play when a Portuguese player was laying injured on the field (Figo I beleive), and this after Portugal kicked the ball out about 10 minutes earlier so a French player could receive assistance. Not to mention Desailly's stomp on Figo and the elbow to Canavarro in the final. But I suppose this is ok because everyone loves a winner!

Ok, ok, I know this is getting old, just had to add my final 2 cents. I'm done.

All I know is if it wasn't for that stupid lineman with a beeper who paged the ref no of this would of happened. Since when do linesmen get to ref a game I thought their job was to judge who's ball it is if it goes out of bounds.

My god, please brush away this "I'm a small country" mentality aside...it has nothing to do with that...

Listen up, perhaps English/Turkish/etc FANS go around pillaging but you will not see a PROFESSIONAL like Shearer or Sukur headbutting referees for a bad call...

And listen to this: attacking the referee shows that you have something (but it definitely isn't balls)...

You know what? If any of my heroes (Bierhoff/Ziege/etc) had disgraced themselves, I would be the first to condemn them...trust me, having heard what the Bayern-based players had attempted during the Euro-cup, I have lost total interest in Bayern München, and almost lost all of my interest in the German National Team...(watching them play against Portugal, anyone could have suspected that something was amidst)...

Alright Voltaire, you make a decent point here and there, I'll give you that. I say we just bury it here, I think everything's been covered on this subject. Personally, right now I'm more concerned with my CM99/00 troubles, fans are protesting, morale is low, and if I don't win the next game, I'm out on my ass!!!

i like Portugal but i do not agree with what you are saying.....

no one here has said they dont like Portugal and all they have said is that they agree with bans handed down...
everyones entitled to their opinion right??
you gave yours so why cant they give theres??

also get over this "everyones against the small nations complex"
its BS and its getting really annoying....
what proof do u have? that portugal got knocked out (fairly i might add)
and Zambrotta got sent off (deservedly as well i might add)

im sorry but the best two teams reached the final and the best team won!

If you think that's bad, I only have FIFA2000, but my controller isn't working...

So, I'm basically just a manager myself, and I can't get further than World Cup Quarterfinals...

Voltaire, you definatly need Championship Manager, this game draws you in and doesn't let you go. Not like that borring ass Fifa, which is fun for about 10 minutes. I don't know how you feel on the taboo subject of warez, but as a sign of good faith, you can email me at Visionblur@Hotmail.com and if you want I'll tell you where you can "aquire" CM 99/00

Kill4Benfica:

There's nothing taboo about it. I'd really like to know your ICQ number !!! If you don't want to post it, just look up my profile and drop me a message. I'd like to talk to you sometime.

TeKNoS

sure, ICQ 2294100