The trial of the Benfica emails continued with another session, marked by the presence in the Court of the referee Joao Pinheiro as a witness in a case where Francisco Marques, Diogo Faria and Julio Magalhaes are defendants. During the morning session, Joao Pinheiro confirmed that he was the author of several emails sent to the League delegate Nuno Cabral, which later reached Paulo Goncalves, Benfica's legal advisor. In the previous session, on 25 October 2022, Nuno Cabral stated that he had not intervened in the email exchange with Pinheiro, something that the Court wanted to clarify.
"This email is mine", confirmed Joao Pinheiro. As recalled by Porto Canal, through which the emails were made public by Francisco Marques, "the referee would have contacted Nuno Cabral in order to obtain the assistance of Paulo Goncalves, the legal director of Benfica, to review the report of a game between Moreirense and Belenenses". Joao Pinheiro said that “it was normal to send game reports” but stressed that he never did so "so that they forward them to someone else". "When I send [reports], I don't expect feedback. I also send them to district referees. Nuno Cabral never asked me for a particular report, and I didn't expect him to forward it," he added. The rankings of the referees at the end of the season are relevant because - as Pinheiro also pointed out - going down in category has a "very big" impact on the financial side of refereeing. Following this case, Joao Pinheiro, initially appointed to the CONMEBOL U-20 Championship 2023 in Colombia, was replaced with Antonio Nobre.
Source: O Jogo
