Apito Dourado

The Apito Dourado (Golden Whistle) affair is a sports corruption scandal in Portuguese football that first arose in 2004. Portuguese Judiciary Police (Polícia Judiciária) investigators named several football personalities as suspects (arguidos) of corrupting or attempting to corrupt referees, including Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, chairman of Futebol Clube do Porto, and the former Boavista Futebol Clube chairman and Portuguese League for Professional Football President Valentim Loureiro. Although less notorious, a major part of the affair involved lower division referees and clubs (namely União Desportiva Sousense and Gondomar Sport Club) and club officials.

In December 2006, Pinto da Costa's former partner Carolina Salgado published the book Eu, Carolina ("Me, Carolina"), in which she made serious accusations against him. Pinto da Costa called these accusations "absurd" and said he would address them in court. Salgado's book caused the two cases in which Pinto da Costa was involved, which had already been dismissed, to be re-opened.

In March 2008, Porto's Tribunal de Instrução Criminal decided that one of these cases, concerning a match between FC Porto and Beira-Mar where Pinto da Costa allegedly delivered an envelope containing 2,500 euros to the referee, would proceed to trial. The other major case involving FC Porto and Pinto da Costa, regarding a match between FC Porto and Estrela da Amadora, where FC Porto allegedly offered prostitutes to the match referees, was dismissed for the second time in June 2008 and the main accusation witness, Salgado, accused of perjury.

In July 2008, Valentim Loureiro was found guilty of abuse of power but not guilty of corruption. He was sentenced to three years, two months of suspended jail time.

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