The Ball – “I had an idea that nothing had happened to Benfica” (Al-Balad)

Francisco J. Marquez was heard this morning, in another hearing in the trial of the so-called “e-mails case”, in which FC Porto’s director of communications was one of the defendants in the process, along with Diogo Faria and Julio Magalhaes. .

As responsible for publishing the emails in a program on Canal Porto, Francisco J. Marquez began to advocate for the public interest in the messages belonging to Benfica. «It jumps out at anyone that there is a public interest. In fact, it was clear that even the New York Times was interested, and so was The New Yorker,” he said, ensuring he continued to believe he had not made a wrong decision in revealing the information.

Asked why the emails were not handed over to the authorities first, Porto’s communications director said: “I had an idea that nothing had happened to Benfica. I thought and decided not to deliver. I thought that if I turned myself in nothing would happen at all and that what was there would be especially dangerous. The only thing to do is make it public so everyone knows what’s going on. It made sense for football fans to know what was going on.”

“It has been five years since those disclosures and in that time period many different things have happened. We’ve had players admit in court that Benfica tried to buy them out, Benfica employees who hold prominent positions and seats in board meetings walk into Setios and consult the same process, but the attorney general’s office is hounding me and I’ll do it.