This Wednesday, José Manuel Constantino blamed the mayor of Lisbon for the delay in the construction of the Olympic Museum and revealed that he hoped that Carlos Moedas would find time to receive the president of the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP).
“[O Museu Olímpico] is stopped. We requested a meeting with the mayor of Lisbon, the engineer Carlos Moedas, who referred us to a councilor. The president of the Portuguese Olympic Committee is not received by the councillors. Either the president receives it or he does not receive it, ”he argued.
In an interview with the Lusa agency, José Manuel Constantino recalled that the president of the Lisbon municipality “when he receives Sporting, or Benfica, or football, he does not send the councilor to receive them.”
“Now, the president of the COP, in terms of protocol, is not at the same level, he is above. And therefore there is a question of respectability here. And of the two, one. Either there is time to receive the president of the Olympic Committee, and I would love to speak with the engineer Carlos Moedas, or there is not. If there isn’t, Lisbon is the loser. Because I think that added value to the city itself, even due to the museum space in which we are integrated, “he defended.
The construction of the Olympic Museum/Casa del Olimpismo, together with the COP, was one of the three priorities listed by José Manuel Constantino, in March of last year, for his last term in charge of the institution, pointing, at that time, to Lusa , which took less than three years to complete the project.
“I hope that one day there will be time, there will be time, to treat the president of the Olympic Committee, from a protocol point of view, as happens in any European country. I am not exactly the president of a sports club.” , or a federation. And, therefore, the protocol treatment that is owed to the president of the Portuguese Olympic Committee has to be in accordance with his status, ”he stressed.
Constantino pointed out, however, that he could be being unfair to Carlos Moedas, who “maybe won’t even know” that the COP president requested a meeting.
“I mean, there [com] the services, although I explained the services why I did not go there. And therefore, in principle, except for my opinion, based on my experience with these situations, the services should report: ‘Here is a guy in a bad mood, who says that he is not coming because his president does not want to see him. Who is this boy? He is the president of the Portuguese Olympic Committee’. I don’t know if this happened or not,” he admitted.
Source: TSF
