Miguel Poiares Maduro, Laurentino Dias and Hermínio Loureiro were on stage at The Academy

This Saturday, The Academy stage at the Thinking Football Summit hosted Miguel Poiares Maduro, former Deputy Minister for Regional Development, Laurentino Dias and Hermínio Loureiro, both former Secretaries of State for Sport, on a panel moderated by journalist Norberto Lopes.

In a conversation based on transparency and sustainability in football, Miguel Poiares Maduro assumed that the current compliance mechanisms should evolve to the reality of the football industry. ‘We have the rules of financial fair play, of integrity, but the fundamental problem is what is the appropriate governance mechanism to ensure that these rules are adequate. Football is even more evolved than other sports, but it's a problem where we have computers from the 70s with software from 2024. The football business is now one and its governance culture has remained very much in an amateur and associative logic and today it has to change a lot in that sense,’ he said.

Laurentino Dias highlighted the new generation of sports leaders, showing hope that they will lead Portuguese football in a more sustainable and transparent direction. ‘Portuguese football is a beautiful reality that brings us all joy and unforgettable moments. Portuguese football still has a way to go, which is hard and difficult, towards greater sustainability and transparency. I think this path is made less by governments and more by the players themselves. I hope that a new generation of club leaders will be a lever for this path that Portuguese football must take,’ he said.

Finally, Hermínio Loureio emphasised the progress that has been made in improving transparency, pointing to the continuity of the improvements made in recent years. He also urged European bodies to commit to these issues. ‘The various changes to legislation have sought to ensure greater control and rigour, such as the legal regime for SADs, and where it is often necessary to strengthen control and inspection mechanisms. But we can't stop. Countries in this area of ensuring transparency and sporting truth at international level need to organise themselves better. It's one more challenge that the European Union has to take on consistently, saying that they want there to be transparency, integrity and sport in all its dimensions,’ he concluded.