The football fan badly injured in a savage beating outside Docksiders last night admitted: ?I could have died.?

Father-of-two Rui Medeiros could be scarred for life by the attack. But doctors have told him there should be no long-term damage to his eyesight.

Speaking for the first time about an act of violence that stunned the community, he recalled the moment four thugs attacked him from behind before repeatedly punching and kicking his face.

?I remember falling down and they kicked me,? said Mr. Medeiros. ?All I remember seeing is red. There was all this blood coming down my face, a lot of blood gushing down.?

The 31-year-old was discharged from hospital yesterday afternoon following four days of treatment, after undergoing plastic surgery to reconstruct his face.

The Portugal supporter?s right eye socket collapsed amid a flurry of sickening blows. A plaster covers his broken nose and he has been left with a two-inch scar under his badly swollen eye, now held in place by a metal plate.

?I?m a quiet guy,? he added. ?I?ve never been in a fight in my life.

?I?m a family man. I have two young daughters. I don?t have time to make trouble.?

He added: ?I watched all the World Cup games in Docksiders. I?ve never had any problems there. If I knew this was going to happen I would have stayed at home and watched the match.

?It could have been so much worse. I could have died.?

Speaking from his home, and surrounded by his close-knit supportive family, Mr. Medeiros said violence flared after he watched the Portugal and France World Cup semi-final in the back bar at the packed Front Street venue with his brother, Pedro, and some workmates.

About 15 minutes before he was set upon, he said there had been a disturbance involving the four young black men who later attacked him when they picked a fight with a Portugal fan.

This quickly ended, but moments later he said he saw the same group burning a Portugal flag. ?I?ve never seen anyone burning a flag before,? he said. ?You can?t do that.?

Mr. Medeiros said his irate brother took the flag away from them ? and when he did one of the group pushed him in the face.

They were separated but violence erupted after the game when the brothers left the bar and found the group waiting outside. ?They were just hanging around for trouble,? said Pedro. ?They were looking for it from the beginning.?

He said that despite the flag-burning and the earlier flashpoint in the bar, there was no indication that serious trouble was about to unfold.

The brothers even stayed in the bar and had another drink after the game, which Portugal lost.

On his brother?s savage beating, Pedro added: ?I wasn?t expecting it. There was no warning.?

Witnesses have said that the culprits hurled racist abuse at their victim before the attack.

Responding to that, Rui?s father, Manuel Medeiros, who has lived on the Island 26 years, said yesterday: ?I?m a Bermudian. I come from Portugal. My son is Bermudian.

?Why are people saying Portuguese have to go home??

He added: ?Bermudians are beautiful people but some people are no good and they have to be stopped.?

Manuel Medeiros said he was shocked when he heard what had happened to his son. ?He?s such a very good person. He?s a calm guy.?

And his son Pedro said of the attackers: ?I think they were troublemakers. They were not there to celebrate a French victory. They were there to be a menace.?

Asked if he thought the attack was fuelled by racism, Rui Medeiros said: ?It could have been anyone, Italians, English, anyone.

?They were just looking for trouble.?

Mr. Medeiros, who runs a construction and landscaping company with his father and brother, said that bouncers trying to break up the fight outside the club pulled his brother away from the melee.

He thought he might not have sustained his facial injuries if Pedro had been there to protect him but was also saddened nobody else in the crowded venue tried to stop the beating, which he said may have lasted two minutes.

?When I see the blows I got to my face and all you see is red coming down your face, and nobody is there to help you, I think that?s wrong. There was a lot of people outside and nobody helped me.

?They could have killed me out there and nobody did anything.?

He later admitted the bystanders were probably too scared to step in.

Mr. Medeiros? mother, Helena, said she thought her son was going to die.

?I cried day and night,? she said. ?Now he?s got a scar and he?s innocent.?

Meanwhile, the family, including his wife Manuela, praised the plastic surgeon who worked on Mr. Medeiros. They said Dr. Christopher Johnson had done an ?excellent? job.

Mr. Medeiros admitted that he could be scarred for life, although the mark might not be serious. He may need another operation on his eye, although medics said he should be able to see clearly again.

News of the attack has shocked the Island.

Politicians condemned the culprits in the House of Assembly on Friday night, while a popular Portuguese football website is carrying a link to a report of the incident for fans around the world to read.

Mr. Medeiros, however, said there had been a lot of support from not just from Portuguese friends, but from all sections of the community in Bermuda.