Belenenses will have one of the lowest budgets in the II Football League next season, due to the financial requirements it must meet to license the stadium, president Patrick Morais de Carvalho presumed.
“We are entering a competition in which Belenenses is heavily penalized from the start, as the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP) requires us to spend more than 500,000 euros to license the Restelo Stadium. Condemn Belenenses to the match. We will have a very modest budget, probably the lowest in the II Liga,” said Lusa, the manager of the Lisbon club, recalling recent events.
Restelo Stadium’s lighting system needs intervention to participate in the II League, although in recent years the venue has hosted several national team matches, Belenenses-Sporting, for the Portuguese Cup, and also some concerts.
“I think this calls into question the sporting truth and the integrity of the league. These are additional difficulties and we will have to go to the II League with a very limited budget. More. The difficulties will be many and the partners will have to prepare for that,” he said.
At the moment, Belenenses, with a budget “about 650,000 euros”, was promoted to the II Liga against opponents “who had tripled the budget”, and now the club has to overcome all these financial difficulties “with your means”.
“It has to be with the income that comes from access to the II Liga, such as television rights, the value of bets, some of our sponsors, prizes we expect to win, season tickets, that the members pay the dues on time, the box office. .. But all this together will certainly bring the lowest budget of the entire II Liga, “he emphasized.
In this way, Patrick Morais de Carvalho does not believe that in his first season in the II Liga, Belenenses can play a sixth consecutive promotion and return to the elite of Portuguese football, since the club “has to spend 500 thousand euros on light bulbs”.
Mission almost over
The rise of professional championships is the “icing on the cake” for the nine years of the presidency of Patrick Morais de Carvalho, who does not intend to run again in the club elections, scheduled for June 24. “.
“I understand that my mission at Belenenses ends on May 20, with the Liga 3 final. As of today, I don’t know if this is possible,” emphasized the leader, in office since October 2014.
Patrick Morais de Carvalho highlighted nine years “with many personal losses and without earning a penny, completely voluntary and amateurish, for the love of the club and respect for the fantastic associative mass of Belenenses”, who always supported and believed in the ideas.
“If I realize that budgetary conditions are met, albeit with the lowest budget of the II League, so that we can fulfill the commitments that we will have to sign, I will reconsider. Otherwise I will not be a candidate and I understand that my mission is accomplished on the 20th I don’t think anyone can demand more from me because I have given nine years of my life along with some management colleagues – and from the beginning there are only two , because this is very difficult”, said the leader of Belenenses.
An extraordinary general meeting will be held before the elections to discuss with the partners participation in professional leagues and the need to create a new sports association, following the split with the former SAD — BSAD, of the II League.
“Since from a legal point of view, the creation of a company remains mandatory, I will defend that Belenenses establish an SDUQ (Sociedade Desportiva Unipessoal por Quotas), 100% owned by Belenenses, but without prejudice to later being able to become a SAD, if we understand it that way,” explains Patrick Morais de Carvalho.
Belenenses and União de Leiria, the two teams that confirmed their climb to the II Liga in the top of the two series of the climb stage, will discuss the Liga 3 championship trophy on May 20 at 4:15 p.m. at ‘mythical’ National Stadium, in Oeiras.
“We deserve more than anyone else”
Thanks to a draw (0-0) against Sanjoanense in the last round of series 2 of the promotion phase of Liga 3, the ‘blues’ already achieved promotion to the II Portuguese football league for the fifth consecutive promotion on Saturday. , since the last district division of Lisbon.
“It was a moment of enormous collective catharsis for the supporters and members of Belenenses. We deserve this joy more than anyone else and it is a victory for the associative mass of Belenenses. The feeling is a bit of ‘I promised and I loved me’. and now we leave Belenenses on the edge of ‘paradise’, in the professional championships. This is an extraordinary feeling, it was the culmination of a series of conquests and victories, both sporting and legal, which just this or more complicated,” the agency told Lusa.
Belenenses and BSAD, former SAD of the “blues”, have been gone since the beginning of the 2018/19 season, which culminated in the creation of a new football team, started in the last district division of Lisbon, and in several court cases, where the club sought to prevent SAD from using its name and symbols, having sold the 10% of capital it still had in the company in July 2020, until the final split between the entities took place.
“It was necessary to get these legal victories, along with these sporting victories, which now seem easy in retrospect, but anyone involved in football knows that it is very difficult, especially in the last year. It was a year in which we very unequal weapons competed. Fortunately, we managed to be competent and have the necessary efficiency to move up the division, which has been the main goal since the first day of the season, “he emphasized.
Challenged to compare the current Belenenses with the one who started this rising path in Portuguese football, after a centuries-old history accustomed to the elite and whose glory rests on the championship of 1945/46, Patrick Morais de Carvalho was compelling in his answer .
“It is a much stronger Belenenses, with very deep associative roots. The associative mass united around the club, the institution, the president, the board, the athletes and the symbol. I have been a member of Belenenses for more than 30 years and, honestly I have never seen the associative mass so united around the club as now,” the manager emphasized.
The ascent is already guaranteed, but there is still a final to play, which will decide, between Belenenses and União de Leiria, who will become the champions of Liga 3, against two historic ones who have managed to “reborn” after several years be out of the limelight of other times.
“We really want to win. It’s not a joke, a walk or a party. It has to be taken seriously. I could say the goal is set and the final doesn’t matter, but that’s not true. It’s the possibility for these players and this coach to imprint, with golden letters, his name in Portuguese football and in the history of Belenenses. It will be a final and it is to win, that must be the spirit,” said the leader of the club from Lisbon.
Praising União de Leiria for the “great job of mobilizing the city”, the result of “dedication, imagination and very great marketing capacity”, Patrick Morais de Carvalho believes that the opponent “also deserves to be champion”, but Belenenses will do anything to add another cup to the museum at Estádio do Restelo.
The manager also referred that Belenenses is already preparing for next season in the II Liga, with “targets identified” and with the players of the squad he intends to continue with, although he has other concerns, including the issue of coach Bruno Dias tackles. .
“He is someone who deserves all my respect. I have a very positive opinion of Bruno Dias and the work he has done. With fewer resources than his opponents, he always had the ability to keep the group together and even in the less positive During different phases of the season he never threw in the towel. He was always the first to believe that it was possible to reach a successful result and the final of the Jamor. I kept him in a certain time of the year under strong opposition. I will have a frank and honest conversation with him in the coming days,” he stressed.
Source: DN
