President of Belenenses reveals that Celta de Vigo wanted to buy the Lisbon club.
Celta de Vigo, from the Spanish League, recently showed interest in buying Belenenses, said this Thursday the president of the Lisbon club, Patrick Morais de Carvalho, who rules out this possibility but positively views the development of international partnerships.
Without revealing many details, Morais de Carvalho revealed during an event in Lisbon that he had lunch about a month ago with a senior official from Celta de Vigo, who conveyed his interest in purchasing SAD from the club that currently competes in the Portuguese II League. , but this hypothesis is out of the question.
« I thought I was coming to buy Belenenses. I didn’t understand anything. I didn’t know that Belenenses SAD was just the players. Nothing else, no stadium, nothing. In Spain, things don’t work like they do here », said the director during a debate on the new legal regime for sports societies (SAD).
In the end, when questioned by journalists, Patrick Morais de Carvalho did not want to provide any further details about the meeting.
« I don’t want to (give more details). I should have even said a Spanish club, because it was just an exploratory lunch and, basically, it served as a lesson to understand the Spanish model and for the Spanish to understand the Portuguese model », he launched, admitting, still thus, opening up to other types of synergies.
« Of course we can do it. There are many types of partnerships, especially because TPO (‘third-party ownership’) is not prohibited between clubs. Therefore, Belenenses and any club in Spain or any other country can share the economic rights of their players. This, with clubs, is not prohibited », he said.
And he added: « The future of Belenenses could also go through this. Having privileged partnerships with some clubs, in South America, in Brazil, in Spain, why not? Partnerships that help us achieve our goals more quickly and that are ‘ win win’, may everyone win from this. »
According to the official, « Portuguese clubs can and should establish partnerships with clubs from other countries and can only gain from this ».
In the debate on the new SAD legal regime, in addition to Patrick Morais de Carvalho, who applauded the legislative effort, but criticized the final result, considering that « clubs are in a position of inferiority compared to investors », Francisco Dinis (deputy from PS), Miguel Lourenço (Benfica’s lawyer) and Catarina Pereira (solicitor), as well as moderator Irene Palma, journalist from A Bola.
« The law fell short in many aspects, and went too far in others. We welcome the entire transparency regime created with this law. The law is not perfect. Nor does it seem to me that it will ever be. Fortunately, there is a deadline for reviewing three years. We are not pessimistic from the outset, but we are cautious », highlighted Miguel Lourenço.
Francisco Dinis already pointed to the main objectives of the new law, which include « safeguarding the existence of clubs, reinforcing the suitability of investors, bringing less conflict of interests, greater transparency in the publicity of management acts, this, in addition to promoting equality of gender ».
Despite being absent « for agenda reasons », the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, João Paulo Correia, conveyed his opinion on the new legal regime via video.
« What motivated this reform was the widespread appeal to the Government, clubs, municipalities, directors, fans and associates – who saw their clubs sink. Around 30% of SADs created in Portugal fell into pre-bankruptcy or bankruptcy. A sector of activity with an impressive number of these cases is a sick sector », he highlighted.
According to the official, what caused this disease were « unreputable investors, a lack of transparency in management, and many conflicts of interest. It is important to defend the sporting truth and also good investors ».
« We want to increase the number of investors, so we created a set of new rules. It’s a major reform and corrects a trajectory that was affecting the largest Portuguese sports industry », he concluded.