President of Sporting highlights positive indicators that give “capacity to invest”
The president of Sporting, Frederico Varandas, today congratulated the club on the recently announced positive balance of 25.2 million euros (ME) in the 2022/2023 Report and Accounts, on the day the director celebrates five years in office.
In an interview at the Thinking Football Summit, which is taking place at Pavilhão Rosa Mota, in Porto, from Thursday to Saturday, the “Leonino” president highlighted the importance of the numbers presented in the last financial year so that acquisitions for greater values can be completed , as were Gyokeres and Hjulmand (20 and 18 ME), the two most expensive in the history of the green and white emblem.
“We had a net result of around 25 million positive. After six years, we once again had positive equity. Within this year, we reinforced the club’s position in SAD’s capital from 64 to 84 million euros and managed to break all records of the company’s business. (…) All this serves to later have more capacity in the sporting aspect and then the fans will be a little less upset when we have to sell the players”, he explained.
Varandas disagrees that the behavior during the closed season that ended in September was a correction to previous approaches to the market or a response to fourth place in the last edition of the I League, but rather a consequence of the greater financial power of the “lions”, which he claims is very different of the scenario he faced when he assumed the presidency in 2018.
“In the 2020/21 market, when we were champions, we went to get Nuno Santos, Pote, Feddal, Adán and we made the decision to bring Palhinha back. There wasn’t a single deal that didn’t work out, what changed is that, in At the time, we had the capacity to invest six, three million euros and now, due to the path taken, today we make investments of 20, 18, 10 million euros, always with the same rationality, without ever jeopardizing the growth and survival of the Sporting”, he highlighted.
Even so, and despite the large sales made over the last five years, as was the case with the departures of Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Nunes or, more recently, Manuel Ugarte, Sporting will continue to be a club, above all, a seller, and Varandas understands that this will always be the reality for the great Portuguese, who “do not have operational revenues close to those achieved by their rivals in European competitions”.
“No one likes having to sell a player, but our objective is to enhance and, if we have to sell him, to value him. Today a great added value we have is that the Sporting product is highly recognized in Europe. Bruno Fernandes left and did well, Palhinha, Nuno Mendes, Porro, Ugarte… Leaving is inevitable, what we have to avoid is losing certain players at no cost. This we have to avoid at all costs and it worries us a lot,” he explained.
The president also discussed the use of the image of Cristiano Ronaldo, the main figure from Alcochete, for the naming of the academy and the third equipment, which, according to Varandas, is “the best-selling in Sporting’s history”.
“Ronaldo is arguably the best Portuguese player in history and, perhaps, the best of all time. What I want from a kid, when he walks through that gate, is for him to believe that one day he could be Cristiano Ronaldo. That’s fair for Ronaldo, but also fair for Sporting, to be able to show that the best Portuguese player of all time was formed there. Let’s not be stupid, nor blind, it would be a mistake not to take advantage of the best we have produced to date. The shirts are As an example of this, in a short time we will give figures on what this commercial move was, but I can say that the third kit was the best-selling in Sporting’s history”, he maintained.
