Benfica vs. Sporting referee shows white card and rewards medical staff

Med­ical staff at Ben­fi­ca and Sport­ing Lis­bon were shown white cards dur­ing Sat­ur­day’s Wom­en’s Cup quarter-finals.

With Ben­fi­ca lead­ing 3–0 in the 44th minute, med­ical staff from both teams rushed to help a fan who had col­lapsed in the stands.

After the episode was resolved, Por­tuguese ref­er­ee Cata­ri­na Cam­pos pre­sent­ed both med­ical staff with white cards, prompt­ing applause and cheers from the fans at Lis­bon’s Esta­dio da Luz.

While yel­low and red cards are used to pun­ish play­ers and coach­ing staff for mis­con­duct dur­ing a match, white cards are some­times shown in Por­tu­gal to rec­og­nize and reward fair play.

The use of white cards is an ini­tia­tive of Por­tu­gal’s Nation­al Plan of Ethics in Sport (PNED) to influ­ence the prac­tice of fair play sports, and is also adopt­ed in the com­pe­ti­tions of the Por­tuguese Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (FPF).

Ben­fi­ca won 5–0 and advanced to the semi-finals.

Sat­ur­day’s der­by will also be remem­bered for set­ting a new wom­en’s foot­ball atten­dance record in Por­tu­gal with 15,032 fans, up from 14,221 in May 2022.