Varandas acquitted of defamation of Pinto da Costa

Sporting president Frederico Varandas was acquitted this Tuesday of the crime of defamation of which he was accused for having called Pinto da Costa, former president of FC Porto, an “active corruptor”, in 2022. The Local Criminal Court of Lisbon decided that Frederico Varandas is “acquitted of the crime of which he was accused”, since he “used that expression [active corruptor] in the exercise of the right to freedom of expression”.

This trial followed another case, originating in Porto, in which Frederico Varandas was also charged with defamation for calling Pinto da Costa, who died on February 15 of this year, a "criminal" in 2020. This first case resulted in Frederico Varandas being sentenced, about two weeks ago, to pay €12,200 —a fine of €7,200 for defamation, plus €5,000 in compensation to the former Porto leader's heirs for non-pecuniary damages.

"A criminal will always be a criminal." Five years later, Frederico Varandas was convicted of defamation for his statements about Pinto da Costa.

In 2022, the president of Sporting changed the description of the president of FC Porto from "criminal" to "active corruptor," when commenting on the case [the first lawsuit] in which he was accused of defaming his Porto counterpart. "No one ever intends to offend anyone when telling the truth. I just told the truth; the truth doesn't offend. But, if you want to change the word, I can replace "criminal" with "active corruptor," it's more elegant," Frederico Varandas said at the time.