There was one thing that was certain on Portuguese television. Every week there would be a big discussion on at least one of the many weekly sport debate programs about football games.

Following the same model, all the main Portuguese television channels presented their weekly sports debate programs with representatives from the biggest national football clubs. The programs, like authentic mushrooms, started to multiply. And the objective was clear. And no, it was not discussing football games. The aim was to create conflicts between commentators. Create crazy rivalries, arguments and threats.

The greater the controversy, the greater the success, the greater the audience, and more money to enter.

Such conflict generated repercussions in civil society. Weeks were spent discussing football scandals and scandals in debate programs. The rivalries between supporters increased, the ire and fanaticism followed the same path, and everything seemed to be fine for Portuguese television - at least as far as the money was coming in, with the commentators being paid in full gold - because for the rest everything was wrong.

With the pandemic caused by COVID-19, there was hope that everything would calm down.

“The pandemic could have helped football agents to understand the situation in which football, like the whole society, is well aware, but unfortunately that is not what happened. In other words, the return of football has returned even worse than it was before in terms of war between the clubs”, said Ricardo Costa, information director for one of the biggest Portuguese television channels.

“This environment of toxicity that has been created around these types of programs, and to which the clubs themselves and their communication machines contribute a lot, puts us in a situation that the time has come to end these types of programs”.

And that was how, abruptly and unexpectedly, one of the biggest Portuguese channels, with sports debate programs with excellent audiences, decided to end all debate programs with commentators representing clubs.

The next day, two other television channels made the same statement. And like a deck of cards, all these toxic programs are over.

In a rare attitude, the Portuguese television channels forgot about the competition and joined together against something that gave them a lot of money, but impoverished our society.

For the sake of society and for the sake of national sport, a better decision could hardly have been made. After all, it seems that not only bad things came with COVID-19.