Ex-MP, former football federation official suspects in corruption probe
These are the only two suspects so far, but there may be more, on a day when the Judicial Police (PJ) searched several premises, including the FPF headquarters.
António Gameiro, a former member of parliament for Portugal’s Socialist Party (PS), and Paulo Lourenço, a former secretary general of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), are the two people made formal suspects in Operation Value Added, an investigation into corruption and related crimes, a source close to the probe confirmed to Lusa on Tuesday.
Lourenço, a trained lawyer, worked between 2012 and 2018 as FPF secretary-general and as legal advisor to its then president, Fernando Gomes. António Gameiro, who has a doctorate in law, was five times elected as a PS member for Santarém, before leaving parliament in 2023.
These are the only two suspects so far, but there may be more, on a day when the Judicial Police (PJ) searched several premises, including the FPF headquarters. The force’s national director, Luís Neves, confirmed that Gomes himself and the FPF’s former director-general, Tiago Craveiro, have not been made suspects.
The FPF is now headed by Pedro Proença, who in February this year succeeded Gomes after the latter served 13 years in the position. He was this week elected head of the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP), where he was due to take over on Tuesday.
The police searches relate to the sale in 2018 – when Gomes was president – of the FPF’s former headquarters on Rua Alexandre Herculano in Lisbon, for more than €11 million, the PJ said in a statement.
The force confirmed that it suspected the crimes of unduly receiving an advantage, corruption, economic participation in business and tax fraud.
Also in a statement, the PJ said that during the investigation, “a series of situations were identified that could be part of illicit behaviour related, above all, to brokering the sale” of the building in question.
In all, 20 search warrants were served on residences, a bank and law firms in the districts of Lisbon, Setúbal and Santarém.
The investigation, which began in 2021, is being overseen by public prosecutors at the Lisbon Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) and will continue “with the analysis of the evidence now collected and with the competent examinations and expertise,” the statement said.