The Portuguese coaches association’s rules are “incomprehensible and stupid” as they refuse to acknowledge manager João Pereira after Ruben Amorim joined Manchester United.
That’s according to Vítor Pinto, the deputy editor of Record, who has hit out at the group and their treatment of the new Sporting Club de Portugal coach.
Pereira was quickly named as the intended replacement for Amorim two weeks ago when Manchester United first moved to appoint Amorim as their new manager.
Amorim is now at Manchester United awaiting a work permit to take charge fully at Old Trafford, and Pereira has been appointed officially as his replacement.
However, that appointment has hit something of a stumbling block as the National Association of Football Coaches (ANTF) have filed a complaint against Pereira for not have the necessary qualifications to be the head coach of a Primeira Liga Club.
They released a statement insisting that they cannot recognise Pereira as Sporting coach and would have to report the situation to the “competent authorities”.
This same statement included praise for Amorim, insisting that they were pleased to see Amorim moving to Manchester United after the “great competence” he’d shown at Sporting.
That’s annoyed Pinto, who is keen to point out the hypocrisy of the statement and the situation given the ANTF blocked Amorim from joining Sporting in the first place.
“Not long ago, a few hours ago in Liga Now, we had the pleasure of being here with Sporting Braga’s president António Salvador. If António Salvador had let himself be intimidated by the union of the National Association of Football Coaches, Rubem Amorim would not have been able to become the main coach of Sporting from Braga,” he said.
“Rubem Amorim would not have had the path he has because it would have taken a long time to be able to train a team of the professional championships of the first league.
“Rubem Amorim would not be in Man United now. If in any case it was necessary, including with the statements of the president of the National Association of Football Coaches of the last days, to praise Rubem Amorim and the leap he took to Man United.
“When it was for the good of the National Association of Football Coaches, Rubem Amorim would never, Mariana, be in this moment in Man United. Because it would have to have continued in Sporting Braga B. We do not know if history will ever be the same.
“Mariana, this is one of the most serious situations, most incomprehensible and most stupid of the current Portuguese football. What is this regulation worth, from the moment that any club can make a death letter to it?
“Rubem Amorim cannot even be presented in Man United because he does not have a work license. Therefore, the regulation is taken seriously to the limit, in this case also involving the existence of Brexit, but there was already this panel to give work licenses previously at the exit of the European Union, and in Portugal?”