Angry Portugal Blame Chelsea For Euro 08 Exit

• zocoss

  20 Jun 08, 22:24

  PORTUGAL UNHAPPY WITH CHELSEA

  

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  Portugal have lashed out at Chelsea for announcing during Euro 2008 that Luiz Felipe Scolari had accepted an offer to coach the Premier League side. Portuguese Football Federation president Gilberto Madail addressed the media on Friday following his team's elimination from the European Championship at the hands of Germany the previous night, and believes the timing of the announcement of Scolari's impending departure had a destabilising effect.

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  "It wasn't the best moment for us for Chelsea to announce Scolari's appointment," said Madail. "I know Scolari had nothing to do with it and I was surprised not by the appointment, because Scolari is a great coach, but at the timing chosen.

  "I wish Chelsea would have consulted us before so that we could have chosen a better time." Madail conceded that Scolari's departure was inevitable. "I knew when we entered the tournament that Scolari would leave," he said. "We respected his wishes. His cycle with Portugal had ended because he wanted a new experience with a club.

  "There was nothing we could do. It was a financial issue and we couldn't match Chelsea's offer." Portugal have also had to deal with the distraction of Cristiano Ronaldo's club situation. The 23-year-old star is under contract at Manchester United but Real Madrid are hell-bent on bringing him to the Bernabeu for the forthcoming campaign.

  Ronaldo admitted after Thursday's 3-2 defeat that he would be discussing his future with United in the coming days. "I don't know what is going on in Ronaldo's mind and I don't think that contract problems would affect a player," said Madail.

  "It's normal for players to have to deal with these issues. I don't think it interferes and I didn't see any problem with Ronaldo." Leaving the competition at the quarter-final stage was a huge disappointment for Portugal, who had been one of the most exciting teams in the event.

  They had shown a lot of flair but ultimately came unstuck against a determined Germany. "I was very disappointed with the game yesterday," Madail said. "Everyone saw Portugal is a strong squad. "There is no way our elimination was fair but the result was fair on the night, Germany won 3-2 and we made mistakes and were made to pay.

  "Good luck for Germany but especially the best of luck to Spain." Now the Portuguese have the difficult task of finding a replacement for Scolari. "(The new coach) will have to speak Portuguese but not necessarily be Portuguese. "He has to have ambition and be a winner. He has to be someone who the players respect."

• HLM

  20 Jun 08, 22:29

  Jose Mourinho?

   

• ~b1RD_m4N~

  21 Jun 08, 00:48

  what does that have to do with Chelsea?

  Portugal lost to a better team, just because Ballack plays for Chelsea and Ronaldo plays for Portugal, u cant always blame Chelsea for what anything happens in the football world

  B-I-A-S!

• gunner77

  21 Jun 08, 00:51

  sore loser la.

  lose alr blame other factors instead of themselves.

• diablo4343

  21 Jun 08, 03:44

  blame urself la. how can blame chelsea.. zzz go home eat portugese egg tart la

• youyayu

  21 Jun 08, 04:06

  lose lose la.. still need blame

• SiMiLaiEh*

  21 Jun 08, 11:49

  they lost bcos germany is the betta team la..walan eh..eye tie stamp ah

• zocoss

  21 Jun 08, 12:39

  Portuguese accuse Chelsea of 'lack of respect' over Luiz Felipe Scolari

   

   

  The Portuguese Football Federation have accused Chelsea of "a lack of respect" for announcing the appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari as manager while the national side were in the middle of their Euro 2008 campaign.

  Before Scolari's appointment was made public, Portugal had won both of their games in flamboyant style. But they subsequently lost to Switzerland in their final group game and were eliminated by Germany on Thursday night.

  The federation president, Gilberto Madail, admitted he had known about Scolari's move to Stamford Bridge before the start of the tournament, but felt the club had acted with arrogance in not even consulting the federation over the timing of the announcement.

  "The moment, the opportunity, that Chelsea took to announce the contract was not for us very correct. Maybe they could have informed us first."

  Portugal had been among the pre-tournament favourites, but crumbled to a 3-2 defeat against Germany in Basle, and despite Scolari's protestations that the result would have been the same either way, there is growing resentment in Portugal about the way their squad was destabilised.

• tarutaru

  21 Jun 08, 16:09

  I watched the match between Portugal and Czech....i saw the way the Portugese play told myself this is a good team but no euro champ calibre...main reason don't know how to defend properly.

• FirePig

  21 Jun 08, 16:15

  portugal cant defend properly. They fell to two similar header goals from the germans.

• Fs4751

  21 Jun 08, 16:31

  A poor workman always blames his tools...good attacking but poor defending...

• Y_Shun

  21 Jun 08, 16:52

  worries me as 3 out of 4 defenders of portugal are from chelsea 

• kaeden

  21 Jun 08, 17:38

  the blame game begins

• youyayu

  21 Jun 08, 18:46

  Originally posted by Y_Shun:

  worries me as 3 out of 4 defenders of portugal are from chelsea 

  no worries, got cech and JT

• ~b1RD_m4N~

  21 Jun 08, 21:22

  Originally posted by Y_Shun:

  worries me as 3 out of 4 defenders of portugal are from chelsea 

  another thing that worries me is that 2 of portugal's 'core' midfielders are from man u (one might be moving on "somewhere"? rofl)

   

• F.raon.I.R

  21 Jun 08, 21:44

  we all know portugal's down fall is due to its defence..no need pin point what chelsea or manutd or whatever crap.

  Just recall their 2 goals conceded were from set pieces.And most of the team were back into the area defending the goal probably except of the lone striker up front.

• ~b1RD_m4N~

  21 Jun 08, 21:49

  Originally posted by F.raon.I.R:

  we all know portugal's down fall is due to its defence..no need pin point what chelsea or manutd or whatever crap.

  Just recall their 2 goals conceded were from set pieces.And most of the team were back into the area defending the goal probably except of the lone striker up front.

  yes, just an imbalanced team! good attacking style doesnt mean will win after 90 minutes. would holland suffer the same fate? coz every match so far, holland scored big and conceded a few goals

• zocoss

  21 Jun 08, 23:07

  I am just surprise that the Portuguese team under Scolari didn't know how to defend against high ball and set pieces... And its not that he don't have the personnel to do it... They had Carvalho who was one of the best defender in the epl last season... and also Ferreira... But we could see from their game against the Czech they were very ill-prepared when it came to high balls into the area... Unlike Turkey who were also short but defended well against the Czech Repubic, Switzerland and Croatia...

  How ironic that they started their tournament playing very well and defeating Turkey and now Turkey are the one going through to the semis while they are out...

   

  

• zocoss

  21 Jun 08, 23:48

  CHELSEA HIT BACK AT PORTUGAL

  

   

  Chelsea have hit back at Portugal's claims that they acted improperly in announcing the appointment of Luiz Felipe Scolari as their new manager.

  The club made the news of Scolari's appointment public on the evening of Portugal's 2-0 win over the Czech Republic, a result that saw Portugal qualify for the quarter-final of Euro 2008.

  However, they then lost the next two games against Switzerland and then against Germany in the first knock-out round. President of the Portuguese Football Federation Gilberto Madail yesterday criticised the timing of Chelsea's announcement that Scolari would succeed Avram Grant at Stamford Bridge.

  "The moment Chelsea took to announce the contract with Mr Scolari was not for us very correct," said Madail. "Maybe they could have informed us first.

  Now Chelsea have responded with an official statement, in which they deny any wrongdoing. The club claim they acted "above board and correctly", and added: "It was the appropriate time for both parties to announce and it had been agreed in advance. The FPF were informed."

  Scolari himself maintains that the timing of the announcement had no effect on Portugal's exit, but it isn't taking a huge leap of faith to suggest that it would not have helped.

• Saltiga

  22 Jun 08, 11:35

  they lost to a better team no doubt but the timing of the announcement could have been better too, players does get affected by such stuff and will lost their concentration if its not being deal properly, Chelsea must have either been getting far too many rejects in the transfer market or their own players getting jiggy with their managerless position hence decided to make such an announcement.  

• Short Ninja

  22 Jun 08, 11:54

  KNN and when they were winning did they say it is also because of Chelsea? Any I dont like Chelsea too>LOL