Apito Dourado
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The affair Apito Dourado (Golden Whistle) is a corruption sports scandal in Portuguese football that blew up in 2004. Portuguese Police investigators accused several football personalities of corrupting referees. Included in the list was Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, chairman of F.C. Porto. His name[1], along others like former Boavista F.C. chairman and Portuguese League for Professional Football president Valentim Loureiro[2], was linked by the media to the Apito Dourado (Golden Whistle)[3] sports corruption scandal in Portuguese football. In December 2006 his former partner - Carolina Salgado, published the book Eu, Carolina (Me, Carolina) where she made serious accusations against Pinto da Costa[4]. Pinto da Costa denied all the accusations made by former partner Carolina. In 2006, and still in the same investigation, the name of Luís Filipe Vieira, chairman of S.L. Benfica was also involved in telephonic conversations with the president of the Portuguese League for Professional Football refusing referees for a Cup of Portugal semi-final but he was surprisingly not sent to trial.
Officially, only two referees have ever been found guilty of tampering with results and banned from activity in Portugal.
[edit] References
- ^ Police raid HQ of European champions Porto, ABC (Source: AFP-Agence France-Presse), December 3, 2004, accessed December 2006
- ^ Portugal football bosses arrested, BBC News, 20 April, 2004, accessed December 2006
- ^ "Golden Whistle" case makes progress in Portugal, People's Daily Online (Source: Xinhua), December 13, 2006, accessed December 2006
- ^ Carolina Salgado Testemunha da Judiciária, Correio da Manhã, December 12, 2006, accessed December 2006 (in Portuguese)
