This Thursday the former Portuguese referee was officially introduced as the new chairman of the referee commission of the Russian Football Federation with a contract for the next two years.
“Working in Russian football is a new challenge for me, and I want to thank the president of the federation for the opportunity he gave me. Russian refereeing, both male and female, has enormous potential, which we must take advantage of. We have a lot of work ahead of us, ”said Vitor Pereira.
During the presentation, when asked by a Russian journalist about the alleged scandal in which he participated in Portugal to pressure the referees to give preference to Benfica, Vitor Pereira said: “I am a fan of Sporting, Benfica’s main enemy since I was born”. he said.
Vitor Pereira has been a referee in Portugal for 23 seasons and has been a member of the UEFA headquarters for 11 years, during which time he directed 104 international matches, 24 of which in the Champions League. He competed in the 1998 World Championships in France, 2002 in South Korea and Japan, and the 2000 European Championships in Belgium and the Netherlands. He also competed in three continental finals (Super Cup, UEFA Cup and Intertoto Cup). He was a member of the UEFA Refereeing Committee and led the refereeing sector in the federations of Portugal (from 2011 to 2016), Greece (from 2017 to 2020) and the Czech Republic, where he has been since the end of 2020, that is, for less than a year. proposed by UEFA, as happened in Greece. He also took part in the Brazilian Federation project.
