The Portuguese Public Ministry accuses manager Vitor Silva of committing crimes of aiding illegal immigration and attracting irregular labor in the recruitment of Brazilian players.
- to cheat: Brazilians pay to play in Portugal, get scammed and find themselves in an illegal situation
- In justice: Portugal will have one of the most demanding nationalities in Europe if the law is passed
He is known as Catao and allegedly committed the crimes in 2018 and 2019 when he was leader of the Associação Desportiva São Pedro da Cova.
The scheme denounced by the Public Ministry (MP) and for which Catau will be put on trial consisted of recruiting Brazilian players, to whom the club paid between €150 (R$1,000) and €300 (R$1,800) per month.
After being tricked, the players were housed in bunk beds in an improvised room located under the stands of a stadium in Gondomar, in the north of the country.
“They spent the night in the club’s stadium facilities, more specifically in a room in which six bunk beds were placed, for a total of 12 beds,” the MP told Jornal de Noticias.
The MP revealed in the 11th indictment, which includes coach Armando Santos as a co-author, that the club wanted to build a team with foreigners while spending little.
The Brazilians agreed, according to the MP, “to play for football clubs in the regional divisions for low amounts of money in the hope that some businessmen will be able to recognize the talent they consider to be theirs and launch them on a football career in the higher divisions.”
There were about 11 players who entered Portugal with a letter/invitation authenticated by the club, giving the excuse to immigration that the immigrants would undergo tests.
The club, now defunct, promised to regularize Brazilians with the now-defunct Foreigners and Border Service, but the promise was never fulfilled.
They came to work as migrants in irregular employment in matches in a national league below the elite of Portuguese football.