The Estádio Dr Magalhäes Pessoa is the 23,500-capacity home of UD Leiria in Portugal. Constructed for the 2004 European Championship, it originally held 30,000 people but seats were removed to allow the inclusion of an athletics track after the tournament had finished. The use of different colours around the ground extends to the seats, which are placed randomly and serve to make the ground appear full from a distance, even when no one is inside.
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Stories
The long-running referee-bribery scandal is still a matter for the courts, but the football authorities are not allowing the legal niceties to get in the way and the casualties are mounting. Phil Town reports
While the so-called Apito Dourado (“Golden whistle”) bribery case continues to trundle through the criminal courts four years after the events, the Portuguese League have taken some decisive action. In what has come to be known as the Apito Final (“Final whistle”), various clubs, club presidents and match officials have been found guilty of dirty deeds and dealt a range of penalties, including fines, suspensions, point-docking and, in one high-profile instance, relegation.
Friday 1 Manchester United are fined £1.6 million by the Office of Fair Trading for price-fixing replica shirts. One of the other ten businesses to be charged are… the FA who will have to pay £158,000 for selling overpriced England shirts on the internet in 2000-01. Tangled web-weaver John Fashanu says he has resigned as chairman of Barry Town, though there is some doubt whether he ever really held such a position. Jody Craddock leaves Sunderland for Wolves, who are also to sign Senegalese striker Henri Camara and Spurs’ Steffen Iversen.
Phil Town explores the stadiums being built in Portugal for Euro 2004
Benfiquistas said a fond farewell in March to their Catedral. The last ever game at Benfica’s once magnificent Luz Stadium was a damp squib of a 1-0 win over modest Santa Clara of the Azores, and that with a penalty. For months, though, the Luz had also been a sorry sight, a quarter of it removed to make way for the magnificent new Luz nudging its way in from next door where it is currently undergoing construction.
More turmoil has engulfed the biggest club in the country, who carelessly keep losing coaches. Phil Town reports on the shambolic mess that is Benfica
Consider it, if you like, a neat and timely metaphor. After the recent Benfica v Sporting derby (2-2), they began to dismantle Benfica’s grand old Luz stadium. Parts of the stand were pulled down and along with the seats and terracing went the massive eagle that kept guard over the entrance to the stadium, as well as the bronze statue of Eusébio, also at the entrance.