“And still what we are worth are the words, so that we have to hold on.” (Raul Brandão)

 “And still what we are worth are the words, so that we have to hold on.” (Raul Brandão)

Today I also decided to write what I think, in reality not everything, about the “football” news, I did not mean sports because that is another activity. And as in all things in life, in this area when “we have the courage” to move forward, we also have to take into account that it is dominated, at all levels, by the same fanaticism, whether it be political, religious or “football”, things get much worse when in an area as important to citizenship as justice, its employees decide to want to “become vigilantes”.

This all comes to the point and given that at a certain point in my life and professional activity I also received some invitations from football clubs, from what I see now, in these times it would be considered a “crime of undue receipt of advantages”, by the president of these clubs and duly "accused by the prosecutors of the public prosecutor", although as it becomes clear, after some years, such accusations would never reach any conviction in court, but in the "scope of football fanaticism" it had already produced its effects on those affected.

As stated in the “Strategic Vision Plan” for Portugal, one of the main problems we are facing is the “low technical competence” of the public services to which citizens are entitled, and in this specific case, the “public justice services that integrate the prosecutors of the public prosecutor ”, who, unlike other public servants, has salaries and others well above the average in Portugal, that is, they are highly paid. That is why it is not understandable the technical errors, which we want to think because of incompetence and incapacity and not for anything else. I leave here only two examples and each one thinks what he wants, but “first” I advise you to “get rid of any kind of fanaticism”. 1) How is it possible to attribute a crime of undue receipt of advantage, for having “offered” tickets for a football game, something that all clubs do? And for the other shows? (bullfighting, theaters, cinemas, etc.) 2) We all know that imputation of facts, which must have means of proof, is fundamental in any situation, much more when one wants to “do justice”, so it is not understood when one “mentions that a Portuguese football club was a finalist in the European Cup in 2014? Or as Mr. Álvaro Sobrinho, who was responsible for the payment of certain sums to Judge Rangel, the main accused, by the public prosecutor in this case, is no longer part of it, is it because he is the main and largest shareholder and investor in SAD do Sporting Club of Portugal?

 It is for this reason that one of the main indicators of backwardness and investment difficulties in Portugal is the Justice System and the credibility of its actions, which is very important from the point of view of social recognition of the functioning of our justice system and of which the Public Prosecution Service is an integral part, which is an organ of administration of justice, integrated in the judicial function of the State.

Once it is clear, it is the Courts who judge, and the Judges decide on them. As Plato said. ” The judge is not appointed to do favors with justice, but to judge according to the law. ” Not to mention the immense difficulty in answering the following question: what expectations should the judge live up to when deciding on a “case” years after it “has already been tried by the press”? Should it live up to the popular-punitivist expectations created, namely by the "press"? Are you responsible for "fighting impunity"? For "social cleansing"? Should it meet the political expectations created? Or should it correspond to constitutional expectations, as a guarantee of the effectiveness of the system of individual guarantees established by the Constitution?

Therefore, it is necessary to respect the Public Ministry as an accusing party. Not to mention that it will have to be a serious and solid institution, formed by people very well prepared and competent to accuse and prove their thesis. Furthermore, behind the MP there is still the entire judicial police to assist in the production of evidence. So, if the judicial police plus the prosecutor are not able to prove the accusation, should the judge "get down" in the dialectical structure to help them? The answer is obvious, under penalty of assuming that it is a "consortium of vigilantes", absolutely inquisitorial and that the criminal process has become a MMA to convict. If that is the case, then the criminal process in Portugal is over and what “is worth street justice” and, it seems that is what is happening today in our country. the wrong, but in discovering the right and sustaining it, wherever it is, against the wrong. ”(Theodore Roosevelt)