Bruno de Carvalho speaks with L'Équipe on funds

The Sporting president, Bruno de Carvalho, gave an extensive interview with L’Équipe this week, focusing in on one of the hot topics un world football today: funds.

“Why have I declared war on funds? Well, I don't know if you could call it a war. We are fundamentally against the large-scale injection of money into football when we don't know where it comes from. Funds always make a profit, transferring both good and bad players. There is a minimum of three things that we want: to evaluate past and present experiences, so that we can stop football from going down this path without measuring the consequences; to know exactly who the partners of these funds are and where the money comes from; and that it be made clear that funds cannot interfere in the management of clubs in anyway whatsoever", opened the Alvalade leader.

Carvalho went on to warn of the dangers clubs spending beyond their means, fueled by funds: “Funds create a dependency. It is a bit like selling drugs, where your clients start to need more and more. You fall into a vicious cycle: more debt, more funds, more debt. Of course these are good and bad funds, but it needs to be made clear which are which. We can't invest three million euros in a player, only to find out later that we owe fifteen million. When I was elected president, 95% of our players belonged to funds and we were experiencing the worst returns in our history, with debts of 500 million euros. People thought we could survive three months. The following season we qualified for the Champions League again. After cuting our relationship with funds we improved on the pitch and we balanced the books."

Bruno de Carvalho also reflected on Sporting's case with Doyen: "Funds want to make money without taking any risks, but a true partner is one that shares the risks with you. For Doyen to be in partnership with us, they would have to change who is in change or where the money comes from. We are 100% right in the case, but there are a lot of innocent people behind bars and criminals on the street."

Lions set out foundations of new football school

Luís Bernardo, administrator who coordinates the communication and public affairs company working with the club, was in Dili last weekend, where he had the opportunity to give a shirt signed by the Sporting Clube de Portugal president Bruno de Carvalho to the leaders of Sporting Clube de Timor: Jaime Santos, leader of Sporting Affiliate number 85, and Zacarias da Costa, former Timor Minister of Foreign Affairs and the current president of the Sporting Clube de Timor General Assembly.

The occasion also served to set out the foundations for a partnership looking at the creation of a new Sporting football school, soon to open in Dili in what will be totally renovated facilitates that will also house futsal, basketball and tennis.

Sporting and Iguarivarius extend already existing links

Sporting Clube de Portugal and the IGV/Iguarivarius group have renewed their partnership with the singing of a memorandum of understanding designed to support the Club’s Olympic sports and the sponsorship of Alvalade’s judo department.

Mário Lino, president of the Iguarivarius group, was evidently happy with the agreement: “The support is part of one of our company’s activities, namely our link to the idea of social responsibility. Sporting is a huge club nationally, in Europe and around the world, with a lot of trophies won in judo. Our biggest shareholder and executive president was also a national champion in this sport and it is an honour to be with Sporting.”

Vicente Moura, Sporting’s vice-president for sport, highlighted the importance of the protocol: “This is a partnership that has been underway for practically two years now and it has been very important. It is a constant support for Portuguese judo, with financing for international competitions. It has enabled us to reach important national and international levels.”

Alvalade Club Store moves to summer schedule

The Official Club Store in Estádio José Alvalade began its summer opening hours this week, until the 30th of August.

The Store will now close at 18h00 on Sunday’s instead of 14h00.

Timor leaders visit Estádio Alvalade, Museum and Academy

The East Timor Secretary of State, Leovigildo Hornai, led a committee in a visit to Sporting Clube de Portugal this week, with the objective on building up a link between Timor and the Alvalade club.

Sporting’s vice-president for sport, Vicente Moura, was on hand to welcome the visitors. “This is part of our drive to bring sporting closer to together with certain nations. Today is a concrete example and we already have an affiliate in Timor. The Secretary of State for Youth and sport visited us and wanted to learn more about what we do at Sporting. We could soon have in place protocols to strengthen our link with East Timor”, said the Alvalade vice-president after the visit.

Board member for expansion and supporters’ clubs, Bruno Mascarenhas, also commented on the day’s interaction: “We know that East Timor is creating the infrastructure to invest in sport. They have a young population and with the history we have and our affiliate Sporting Clube de Timor, it makes sense to have the Secretary of State with us here.”

Leovigildo Hornai also spoke about the visit: “The idea of this visit was to see how the Sporting Academy is developing. This club has quality and it is a great stadium. From an East Timor perspective, we wanted to see if we can develop more cooperation in the future. In Timor we want to carry on investing in football and promoting our young talent. We will look at developing a relationship with Sporting for the development of our clubs.”