September 08, 2023

Frederico Varandas: "Liga Portugal has been striving to make Portuguese football a more attractive product"

The Sporting CP President was at the Thinking Football Summit, where he addressed the most pressing issues of the club

 

On the day he celebrates five years in the Presidency of Sporting CP, Frederico Varandas brightened up the TFS Stage, in an interview conducted by Vanda Cipriano, Content and Broadcasting Operations Coordinator of Liga Portugal.

The interview began precisely with the milestone of the leader of the Lions, who assessed the journey made since 2018, while highlighting the differences between then and now. “"Incomparable. We are a big club, but we have grown strong again. From a structural and organisational point of view, we are stronger and financially healthier because Sporting CP has achieved stability. We've reached 100,000 members with up-to-date membership fees for the first time in our history, and we're consecutively setting new records in all types of business," he began by saying.

"These have been very positive years with sporting and financial success. We returned to have positive equity and higher turnover in or limited liability company. We continue to grow and this is due to the balance between these two factors. We are committed to the club and will always make decisions in Sporting CP's best interests," he added.

Frederico Varandas also explained the development of the youth academy, highlighting the changes that have taken place and the players who have become leading references in world football."

The Academy has been renovated and redesigned and it's excellent. We've invested a lot in human resources and a performance unit and we'll soon be announcing new developments in terms of training. There's no club in the world that has produced two Golden-Ball winners and a Silver Ball winner, so we're the best academy club in the world," he said, looking to the future:

"Our sporting project is to compete for all the national trophies and to repeat the last two good European seasons we've had. Rúben Amorim? Every head coach is the key to a sporting project".

Last but not least, the Sporting CP president addressed the issue of the centralisation of audiovisual rights, sharing the club's stance. "Sporting CP was in favour of it before the government imposed it. We're always in favour of increasing competitiveness, but we don't want to lose what we've achieved so far. If we're competing in a stronger league, we'll be stronger," he added, while also acknowledging Liga Portugal as a key player in the growth of professional football in Portugal.

"I have to acknowledge that the league has worked hard to make football a more attractive product and can count on Sporting CP as its number one ally," concluded Frederico Varandas.

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