On the road to success

In an interview given to the magazine "Exame", Domingos Soares de Oliveira addressed several current issues of Sport Lisboa e Benfica. He spoke about the transfer of João Félix, praised the financial results, approached the theme of the naming of the Stadium and also the expansion of the Benfica brand.

Biggest transfer ever in Portuguese football

"Of course, no one can be sad after receiving 120 million euros. I think we need to be aware of the magnitude of what we have already done. We've had years when transfers were around 80-100 million euros, but always with a lot of players. Even this financial period that ended now, on 30 June, will have a significant amount of money from players' sales, so it is impossible to say that a single deal that makes 120 million euros is not good. Now, we live today an economic reality that should allow us to say "no" to certain sales and retain players. In my humble opinion, I would have preferred him to stay here for a year or two instead of letting him go right away. For us, for the player - I don't know if for Atletico Madrid - it would have been a more desirable situation. But the player's will is important, it has to be respected. The conditions of the deal, so that it could be done without Benfica being able to oppose it, were presented. Benfica receives 120 million upfront, so there's no point in saying whether we're happy or not. The deal is done."

Where the value of the transfer is being channeled to

"We could invest on signing a mega-star. But we would have two problems. The first is that these mega-star, nowadays, say that the Portuguese championship is less attractive than the Top 5 Leagues main. They like the idea of being able to play in the Champions League, yes, but what I have to be careful about is the balance of the payroll. If I am going to sign a player who is going to win five or six million net salary, I create a huge problem in the dressing room. The money will clearly be used to strengthen our competitive capacity, which does not necessarily mean that it is more purchases or higher salaries, but we can't keep the money here, say that Benfica is a fantastic entity and that we have 300 million in the bank. The intention is always to strengthen our competitive capacity, without compromising the balance, both from accounts and from wages."

Extraordinary year from a financial point of view

"We have always maintained, from the point of view of ratios, our wage cost within the recommendations of UEFA, below 70%. Maintaining this behavior, we will be able to present positive results, as we have done in the last five years, and 2018/2019 will again be a year with positive results. Of course, starting 2019/2020 with an extraordinary revenue of 126 million, with the guarantee that we are in Champions League, we broke records of revenue from annual seats, the Red Pass; the year will be extraordinary from a financial point of view."

The liability

"Nationally, people care a lot about liabilities and I have never seen anyone care about assets. Three hundred million in liabilities, and 130  is what we have today of what has financial burden; I do not know how we are going to close in terms of suppliers. However, I would say that it will remain at 50-60 million euros, and the rest are the discounts from contracts we're making, which is acceptable enough for us."

Naming of the Stadium

"We haven't been able to come to an agreement yet, and it's not the only case. Portuguese brands cannot support the investment we consider necessary. As such, looking for an international brand. What we see nowadays is that nobody will invest in the naming just to have here the name of its brand, to promote it. The national brands don't need that, and the major international brands have other vehicles to project their name; they don't need to do it in a peripheral country such as Portugal. So, we need to find a justification from the business point of view that goes far beyond the brand exposure. And that's what we're discussing with more than one partner. Right now, we have two open conversations, I hope to close one."

Importance of the Champions League

"At the request of the big European clubs, the money distributed in the Champions League is much higher than it used to be. A few years ago, for qualifying for the group stage we would receive 8-9 million euros, now we receive €40 to 45 million. The demand of the big clubs and UEFA's response to prevent the creation of such a European Super League have resulted in increased revenues. At the domestic level, this creates more imbalance, not only in Portugal but everywhere. At the international level, this allows us to maintain a reasonable competitive capacity, although we do not receive the same as a Barcelona or a Liverpool, at least we do not keep only the domestic funds, which would make it impossible to compete."

Expansion of the Benfica brand

"I think we're in a position to aim for a stronger Benfica than we have today. And I make the comparison, looking at the last 15 years and looking ahead. As the President said, 15 years ago we had no money. All we wanted was a dream, and the ability to make it happen was very limited. But we must mention that we were in a period in which was easy to get credit. And, with the support of the banks, we managed to build the stadium, restructure the squad, settle all the debts we had inherited from the darkest times in Benfica. If today we have, looking back, a financial capacity that is unique, an investment capacity that is unique, a squad that we are proud of in national terms, if we come from a process in which we won five of the last six championship titles, we have a professional structure that is very good, I would say we have all the conditions so that, in 10 years' time, we can be more and more integrated into the biggest European clubs. I think we have all the conditions for that."

Photos: Archive / SL Benfica