PORTO manager Sergio Conceicao has been forced to deny attacking and threatening to kill a town mayor during a children’s football tournament.
The youth tournament – the Copa Gafanote – was held in the Spanish port city of Huelva and featured Seville and Porto in the final.
Manuel Barroso, mayor of Huelva, claims he was informed that the referee of the final was being attacked on the pitch.
Barroso said on radio: “I ran to support him, the man was about to enter the tunnel. Before entering, one of them slapped him.
“I stood in the middle, serving as a shield, saying who they were to jump on to the grass, that they couldn’t jump on to the grass like that.
“With a grotesque and arrogant attitude, they told me, ‘You don’t know who you are talking to.’
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“I identified myself as the mayor of Cartaya and told him, ‘Sorry, you don’t have to jump here, you don’t have to jump or attack anyone’.
“Then they started insulting me, disrespecting me. They push me, they grab me by the neck and I try to resist by pushing them until the authorities, the Civil Guard, arrive.”
Borroso then alleged that it was Porto boss Conceicao who was at the centre of the argument.
He said: “Later I found out that he was the coach of the FC Porto first team. I told him when I found out.
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“I told him, ‘Aren’t you ashamed that, as the leader of this club, you disrespect me and even attack me?’. But then he continued disrespecting me and even threatened to kill me.”
According to Lisbon paper A Bola, Conceicao denies Barroso’s accusation of assault.
But the football manager confirmed he was at the match as his son Moises plays for a Porto youth side.
Record also state that Conceicao plans to sue Barroso for “falsely accusing him of assault”.
And it is added that Conceicao also accuses mayor Barroso of initiating the row after attacking his son.
A statement from his legal team read: “Yesterday, immediately after the events, a criminal complaint was filed against Mayor Manuel Barroso for attempted assault on Sérgio Conceição’s son (Moisés Conceição). We repudiate the accusations made by the mayor himself, which are untrue.”
Conceicao, a former winger for the likes of Inter Milan, Lazio and Porto, has been in charge of the Portuguese side since 2017.
He has three league titles to his name but is trailing league leaders Sporting Lisbon by seven points this season.
And his Porto side were recently knocked out of the Champions League by Arsenal in the last 16, which was followed by a row with opposite number Mikel Arteta.
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Conceicao even accused Arteta of insulting his family – something Arsenal as a club denied.
The former Portugal player has also had run-ins with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel when the German was in charge of Chelsea.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
