Prime Minister António Costa rejected this Sunday that the Champions League finals games, which will take place in Lisbon in August, have an audience on the stands – a decision that UEFA had sent to July and on the which the Directorate-General for Health had not yet issued a final statement.
In an interview with comedian Ricardo Araújo Pereira on the SIC program “Isto é Gozar com Quem Trabalho”, António Costa was asked whether the final should not be in futsal, instead of football, in order to ensure that inside the field they were not overtaken the legal limits for gatherings in the metropolitan area of Lisbon, recently reduced to 10 people.
In response, the Prime Minister assured: “In each of these games in person you will have less audience than in this room of Teatro Villaret [local onde é gravado o programa]”. Bearing in mind that the program is recorded in front of an audience composed of a few dozen people, it is quickly concluded that the Prime Minister defends that the stadiums are no more than the essential people for the game (in the Portuguese League, for example) , the maximum limit of 185 people required to play the game was defined, including for coverage and transmission of the match).
“There will be less in-person audiences and a little more television audience. Of course, my presence here today will be different ”, joked the Prime Minister.
António Costa’s position on holding the Champions League games without the presence of an audience is the first certainty given publicly on the subject. When UEFA announced that Lisbon would host the matches, the leader of the body that oversees European football, Aleksander Ceferin, postponed until July the decision on the presence of the public in the stands.
“If I had to give an answer today, I would say that we will not be able to have supporters. But a month ago I didn’t even know if we would be able to finish the competitions. We have not yet decided on the spectators, as we will analyze it in early July. It would be incompetence for us to decide in advance. We will decide until mid-July, surely. We do not know if they will only be local fans, if there are no fans or if fans from other countries who may be in the games. As I said, if it were now that we had to decide, there would be no supporters. But we have to wait. The Champions League games will only be played in two months and we have already seen how things change in two months, ”said the official at the time.
Even in Portugal, the health authorities had not yet given definitive certainties about the possibility of welcoming the public in the stadiums where the final phase of the Champions League will be played.
In the interview, António Costa also responded to the criticisms he received after considering that the Champions League would serve as a reward for health professionals for their efforts in combating Covid-19.
“I am a glutton of words, you must not have heard the part where I said that I was thanking the Portuguese in general, the health professionals in particular, for creating the conditions of trust so that Portugal was chosen as a safe destination to hold the Champions“Said the prime minister.
In an interview full of football metaphors, António Costa also commented on the change of Finance Minister, with the departure of Mário Centeno and the rise of João Leão, until then Secretary of State for Centeno. Asked whether picking up someone from team B could have an effect similar to what happened to Bruno Lage at Benfica, Costa assured that “João Leão was already part of team A, he was already playing in team A for five years, he became the team captain“.
Costa also commented on the appointment of the businessman António Costa e Silva to lead, with the Government but externally (a situation that earned him the designation of “paraminister”), the work of preparing the program for the recovery and relaunch of the national economy in the future after -pandemic.
“In fact, Professor António Costa e Silva can bring much more than what I could give to this design of the future project, for his knowledge, for his strategic reflection, for the freedom he has to think, to articulate with all the political and social agents, who are fundamental to mobilize the country and for the next recovery phase ”, said the Prime Minister.
Regarding the decision, made known this week, by the investigating judge Carlos Alexandre to bring all defendants in the Tancos case to trial, including former Defense Minister Azeredo Lopes, António Costa said that the trial will “finally” happen “In the proper place, which is the court”.
“It is a joy to be able to all go up to the big stage now. Finally, a trial that has been public will continue to be public, but, now, in the proper place, which is the court. And with a curiosity that I think we all have – I, at least, have. You have to recognize that it is a very original argument, that it is the argument that the truly serious crime was not the theft of weapons, but the truly serious crime was to recover the weapons. Such is the originality of the narrative. Look, I, for myself, am very curious to see this trial, which, fortunately, will reach the public square“Said Costa.
Tancos: 23 defendants, one of them former defense minister. All go to trial
The prime minister also had time to devalue the internal opposition in the PS, when asked about the fact that he supported a re-election of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa against a possible candidacy by the socialist Ana Gomes for the Presidency of the Republic, and also faced with the internal opposition of Francisco Assis.
“It is very unfair as to the group of political parties, on the right and on the left, which have their own dynamic life, but it is also very unfair with the PS. Freedom in the PS has never been an issue. It was always a huge advantage and a huge quality. The PS was founded as a party of freedom, and so we have lived, and therefore freedom of thought, freedom of expression, is never a problem. Neither in the PS nor outside the PS ”, said Costa.
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