Portugal's president lashes out at English fans

The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, joined this Saturday in criticism against tolerance with the excesses of English fans who attend in Port to the final of the Champions League.

“You cannot say that we have to obey the rules, set a limit and then that the limit is no longer that,” said the president.

Rebelo's criticism comes after the dissemination of images of the excesses of English fans who have taken Porto, the second city in the country, without respecting anti-COVID protocols.

The bulk of the more than 16,000 fans with access to the Do Dragao state, where Manchester City and Chelsea meet, arrived in Porto this Saturday, they went through the city without a mask and without the minimum safety distances and crowded by the hundreds on the terraces of the “ribeira” before the passivity of the Portuguese police.

“You cannot say that the supporters will be in a bubble and then they are not in a bubble,” he lamented. Sous rebelto.

The criticisms of the Portuguese president are added to those that have been heard in the last hours from different sectors of the country, from politicians to businessmen to athletes.

“Total submission to football”, denounced the Portuguese rugby federation, which held the final of its national championship without an audience.

“What is happening is incredible,” lamented the leader of the conservative opposition, Rui Rio.

“I cannot understand how we do not allow an audience in our soccer championships – and I will even say that it seems good to me – and now we import a game in which foreigners can be and even cause incidents”, He said.

From the restaurant bosses they also complain of “incongruity” in the government strategy, with inspections and restrictions in restaurants and terraces in the country, while excesses are allowed among British fans.

An “incomprehensible permissiveness” and a “double yardstick” that generates a “feeling of indignation and revolt,” the businessmen warned.