The Porto Brief, Week of 4 October 2026: Portugal Face Norway at the Dragão Without Ronaldo, No VCI Toll for Now, and the North's Courts Run Short of Prosecutors

Welcome to the Porto Brief, your weekly view from the banks of the Douro. Portugal play Norway at the Dragão tonight with their captain gone from the squad, the mayor says a congestion charge on the VCI is not on the table for now, and the north's chief prosecutor says not one court had its legal minimum of prosecutors last year. Your roundup for 27 September to 4 October.

Portugal at the Dragão, without Ronaldo

Portugal host Norway at the Estádio do Dragão tonight at 19:45, with the Italian Maurizio Mariani refereeing. Jorge Jesus's side lead Nations League Group A4 with nine points from three wins; Denmark, Norway and Wales have three each, and the coach says a win would all but settle a quarter-final place. The match comes after Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of the camp in Copenhagen. Jesus would only say that "Cris is a symbol" of the team and of Portugal, and that the subject can wait until after the game. On Saturday a poster thanking Ronaldo and criticising Jesus went up on the Francos roundabout, put there by the same businessman behind the Lisbon billboards; it was gone by the afternoon.

At the club, FC Porto signed Chris Smalling, the 36-year-old former Manchester United and Roma centre-back, on a free transfer for one season with an option for a second, after injuries in defence. The women's volleyball team beat Braga 3-1 in Santo Tirso to win the Supertaça, their first since the club's partnership with the AJM academy ended. In Vila do Conde, Rio Ave, 16th with one win in seven, sacked their Greek coach, Silaidopoulos, and are negotiating with Arouca's Vasco Seabra.

A toll on the VCI? Not now

The transport regulator's study of road funding lists congestion charging on the approaches to the two metropolitan areas among its options. Pedro Duarte, who chairs both the Câmara and the metropolitan council, said on Friday he would not discuss it "hastily" and is not considering it now, though he cannot rule it out in future. Any such charge, he said, would need strong public transport alternatives and its revenue would have to stay in the region. Gaia's deputy mayor, Firmino Pereira, called the idea "absurd" for a road that has no alternative.

At the Câmara

Nobody bid at the 16 September auctions for the two properties the previous council bought so that two associations could build mosques on them: buildings at Rua da Porta do Sol 27 to 31 (base price 913,700 euros) and a house on Rua do Pinheiro Grande in Campanhã (1,307,000 euros). Duarte told the municipal assembly the council may lower the price or keep the sites for public use. The Socialist councillors want architecture students from the city's six faculties to design new public toilets, Tokyo style: Porto has 22 working, 15 have closed, and eight units bought for 475,500 euros were moved to other uses this year. Their colleague Fernando Paulo has suspended his mandate for four months to run the district Social Security centre; the lawyer Helena Maia takes his seat. Tourist coach operators will soon book access to the old-town restricted zone through an app, the latest step after tuk-tuk stops moved out of the Ribeira and Clérigos. And Time Out Market is suing Metro do Porto over the Pink Line works.

Prosecutors, police and Custóias

The regional prosecutor, Norberto Martins, says in his 2025 report that every court in the north ran below its legal minimum of prosecutors for much of the year, with 530 in post. Criminal inquiries rose 6.4 percent to 162,981 (about 14 percent in the Porto comarca alone), and the backlog grew by almost 14,000 cases. Prosecutors have also charged the president, two directors and three staff of a Gaia municipal company over roadworks ordered verbally between 2015 and 2017, and want 443,439 euros forfeited.

In Gondomar, the mayor says closing the PSP station in Valbom is under consideration; the Porto command says it has "no information" about any closures. Matosinhos has been promised that the 200 officers joining the metropolitan command in December will be shared fairly between councils. All this in the week police took their pay dispute onto Porto's streets. At Custóias prison, which holds more than 1,000 inmates, the guards call off their month-long strike on Monday, 5 October, after the prison service agreed to new security measures and to replace the clinical director.

On the river and around the north

The new Porto to Gaia river crossings logged more than 40,000 validations in their first two months: 22,000 between Afurada and Cais do Ouro, and over 18,000 between the Ribeira and Cais de Gaia. Each trip takes about seven minutes, boats leave every 30 minutes, Andante tickets and passes are valid, and a single bought on board costs 3 euros (5 euros return). Gondomar's council chose Saturday to give its gold Medal of Merit, posthumously, to Diogo Jota and André Silva, and has warned residents that it never asks for fines to be paid by MB WAY. The organisers of June's Air Invictus say it was worth 136 million euros to the region, while the Rally de Portugal loses its world championship slot for 2027. Up in Trás-os-Montes, Vinhais plans a 2027 bid for UNESCO recognition of its century-old chestnut groves as intangible heritage.

What's on, and the weather

The Press Start video game festival closes at the Casa da Música today with Digitópia's "Insert Coin to Continue" in Sala 2. On Friday Rui Veloso brings his trio to the Super Bock Arena (30 to 75 euros) and the Coliseu hosts the José Pinhal Post-Mortem Experience (15 euros). Looking further ahead, GNR, Pedro Abrunhosa, Pedro Burmester and Três Tristes Tigres play the Coliseu in November to mark 25 years since Porto 2001 (20 to 25 euros), and Carlão plays the Casa da Música on 29 April. More dates are on our events calendar. Keep the umbrella handy: showers linger until Wednesday, with Tuesday the wettest day in the north, before a dry end to the week.

That is the week in the Invicta. If we have missed a story on your doorstep, just hit reply. The Portugal Brief

Feature image: the Estádio do Dragão under floodlights, by Edgar Jiménez (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.