[dropcap]”[/dropcap]As everyone knows, I announced some time ago that I would enter a period of reflection regarding a possible candidacy for the Presidency of Sport Lisboa e Benfica.
I know that we live, as a society, difficult times when we all had to be confined to preserve our health and that of others, especially that of the most fragile or elderly. We made a collective sacrifice for everyone we love.
Football and sports in general seemed to momentarily lose their importance. Of course, when faced with life and death, we tend to focus on the essentials, but the truth is, there was no sports fan who did not miss a stadium or a full pavilion, to feel the human warmth of watching live a game or hug a friend, or even a stranger, when our team scores a goal.
Hopefully, life can get back to normal.
And it wasn’t these 2 or 3 months of confinement that made me forget the multiple and diverse messes that Benfica was involved in.
I saw an unexplained takeover bid, I saw problems with a management advisor, I saw business that I didn’t like, I saw any number of problems that I wish were far from my club.
I saw, above all, a club that does not realize that it is about to be relegated, definitively, to a second European division, without any capacity for reaction, and the managers seem more interested in dollar signs than in the sporting greatness of the club they lead.
I saw endless propaganda in the face of a non-existent financial miracle, but propagated endlessly by uncritical media and ill-prepared to understand what is right before your eyes.
The only alternative that exists to this state of affairs is a candidate who has the great quality of being unequivocally Benfiquista, but who forgot that he was with the current President for a decade and is complicit with everything that happens.
Well, given all of this, it seems to me that the only lucid thing to do is to proceed to a candidacy for the Presidency of Sport Lisboa e Benfica.
Contrary to what many people think, it will be the second time that I run, after in 2009 I had a result obscured by a judicial process that would come to win without fear (ie Portugal) and because of the electronic vote that is very distant to make sure it was the real result. We will discuss this in due course.
I am Benfiquista, member since 2002, and I have done everything I can for my club. Intervening in GAs and giving advice to the President and his Board here and in person. I have been a partner for 18 years, but since I could be a candidate in 2009, my right to be a candidate for President of Benfica is inalienable. Not least because the President himself has also been elected on the basis of previous statutes and not current ones as we all know. The same logic applies to both. I hope this isn’t even a topic in the campaign.
I would like to remind you that I have already submitted a Governance Program for Benfica and a proposal to revise the statutes. These are two essential elements that qualify me for the candidacy I want to make.
It is a candidacy filled with great Benfiquismo without opportunists or people with dubious pasts. I have a remarkable team that can do a great job at Benfica.
We want a big and strong Benfica at all levels, but above all in football, which is the real spring of a club with the grandeur of ours.
Finally, I turn to the media, saying that, for now, I am not available for interviews or comments. I expect an exempt and rigorous work from everyone, something that has not happened in the past.
I now state that I will favor all Benfiquistas online forums and communicate with everyone, especially through my Facebook page.
I have never been on any television program or blog that covers me. I do not even want.
I lead a group of Benfica fans who want a solid Benfica and who have a project of true European affirmation that does not follow the conditions and opinions of others.
We know how to recognize what has been done well in recent years, but we also know that we have to take a qualitative leap that the current President was not able to achieve, as well as we have to reinforce transparency and club experience.
Make no mistake. this is a solid, affirmative bid to win, which is not against anyone, but in favor of the club we love.
There is a course. There is a future designed. There is a project. There is an application. “