Former Vila Nova de Gaia council chairman acquitted of embezzlement over football tickets
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues was acquitted of charges of misconduct and embezzlement related to municipal expenses on football matches. The court also acquitted the two co-defendants.
Gaia court acquits former mayor of embezzlement charges linked to FC Porto
Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues, former chairman of the Vila Nova de Gaia Municipal Council, was acquitted on Friday, 4 September, of charges of misconduct and embezzlement, according to dn.pt. The case centred on the alleged use of public money to finance football match tickets.
The same court acquitted former vice-president Patrocínio Azevedo and the then secretary to the presidency, who were accused jointly of embezzlement and falsification of documents.
In reading the judgment, the presiding judge classified the former mayor's choice to take a delegation to football matches as "reprehensible and morally censurable" options, but they amounted only to "political choices". The magistrate further considered that "Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues's testimony was relevant and corroborated by other evidence", establishing the existence of a partnership between FC Porto and the municipality. As for the other two defendants, the judge stressed that they "merely followed the instructions of Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues to pay the delegation's expenses".
The Public Prosecution Service had requested, on 23 June, during closing arguments, a prison sentence of between four to six years for Rodrigues, who led the municipality for the Socialist Party from 2013 to 2025. For the former vice-president and the secretary, the prosecutor had requested suspended sentences of between three to four years. The Public Prosecution Service argued that in 2015 and 2016, the then council chairman authorised municipal expenses for third-party travel to Champions League matches, considered to be recreational rather than institutional in nature, resulting in damage to public funds of more than 15,800 euros.
Rodrigues resigned from his position in June 2025, after being convicted of loss of mandate due to personal use of a municipal electric vehicle, after twelve years leading the municipality.
Leaving the Vila Nova de Gaia Court, in the Porto district, the former mayor reacted with criticism of the proceedings. "Ten years on, and dozens and dozens of reports that attempted to attribute to me the crime of taking trips with family and friends to watch FC Porto, it has been clarified that all of this was a falsehood arising from a climate of persecution and anonymous denunciations that occurred in Gaia not only in this case, but in others," he declared.
When asked whether he was satisfied with the decision, Rodrigues stated that he "cannot be satisfied" because for ten years suspicion has fallen upon him of behaviour that has now been proven to be "absolutely legal and ethical". "This decision is not a just decision because justice would have been never to have gone through this", he stressed.
The Socialist clarified that the people who made up the delegations at FC Porto matches held institutional positions in Vila Nova de Gaia and participated in a logic of institutional representation of the municipality. He reiterated that he never took family members or friends to any event at the municipality's expense, describing that idea as "invented and created by anonymous denunciations and a climate of hatred and persecution".
Rodrigues also criticised the slowness of the justice system, a period during which he was, in his words, "eternally crucified" whilst acting in good faith. He also addressed the Public Prosecution Service: "The Public Prosecution Service is the guarantor of legality, but sometimes it seems to be a sort of hostile agent with hatred towards politicians. Neither do politicians deserve that, nor is it good for the Public Prosecution Service for that to happen because, afterwards, the truth is demonstrated, although the marks never leave the body of those who, like me, feel themselves a victim."
The former council chairman considered there to be no "knowledge in Portugal" of a municipal leader who, in the last eight years, has suffered "such a level of persecution and anonymous denunciations". The objective, he added, was to remove him for carrying out "great work in Vila Nova de Gaia and in the Porto Metropolitan Area" and for undermining "certain vested interests, from the transport sector to investment and community framework matters".
Source: Google News PT — Crime (pt)