Benfica goes to the vote on October 25th. DN challenged the six candidates for the club’s presidency for the four-year period 2025-2029, Rui Costa, Luís Filipe Vieira, João Noronha Lopes, João Diogo Manteigas, Martim Mayer and Cristóvão Carvalho, to answer the same five questions on five essential topics in the life of the club, from the priority after the election, to politics and the sports project for football, passing through the liabilities and future of the Benfica institution.
The priority of priorities, once elected is…
Win, lead and unite the Benfica family.
How is the balance found between training and the sporting demands of a club like Benfica: Training to sell and sustain the sporting project or training to feed the team and have sporting success.
We do not look at this issue as a question of balance between two antagonistic visions because, at Benfica, we train players always with the prospect of reaching team A and making their way there. This season, nine players from team A trained at the Benfica Campus, voted the best academy in the world twice and the one that trained the most players currently competing in the five main European leagues. Benfica Campus has placed players on the list of the best players in the world for nine consecutive years.
Benfica presented a positive result of €34.4 ME. Liabilities fell to €474.9 million – is this still a problem? And how do you lower it further?
The economic results are positive from all perspectives. I highlight that current revenues increased more than current costs, on a path that we defined to reach 500 million in revenue, essential for our team to regularly be in the European Top 10. In a SAD that presents assets of around 600 million euros, it is not worrying to present liabilities with this value. It is important to control and continue to reduce the net financial debt (€202ME to €197ME in the last financial year) and to other clubs (ie, the difference between what we have to receive and pay, from €66ME to €26ME in the last financial year). In this exercise, we saw a reduction of €45ME in these two indicators. We present the best debt/revenue ratio in Portuguese football and the only one below 100% (currently at 60%).
Is José Mourinho the coach of your sports project for football? Why?
José Mourinho has an enviable CV, notable experience, national champion in Portugal and in the three main European leagues, winner of two Champions Leagues. He is the right man to lead a club as great as Benfica with ambition.
What will Benfica look like in the future? (A reformist measure until 2030)
The Benfica of the future is a winning Benfica that shortens “distances” to the other European colossi. One of the projects that will allow the club to project itself in this way will be the Benfica District, which will revolutionize the stadium and its surroundings and which will positively transform Benfica’s relationship with its fans.
isaura.almeida@dn.pt
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