Villas-Boas hits out at clubs wiping debts via PER… | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas believes that “infrastructure, technology, the restructuring of competitive formats, and a much tougher licensing law” are areas that need change in Portuguese football. In an interview with the YouTube channel ‘Primeiro Toque’, the FC Porto president recalled the “historic clubs” that were “lost” and then “rebuilt”, while also offering criticism: “FC Porto cannot be required under UEFA rules to meet its obligations to clubs to which it owes capital and money because of player transfers, while there are clubs that file PERs and wipe out those debts as if they were nothing through PERs, and still remain in the Primeira Liga.”

“We have already lost — though they rebuilt themselves, we already lost them — from the top leagues Belenenses, V. Setúbal, Boavista, among many other historic clubs with great names and great brands, and without the ability to stay alive, which rebuilt themselves from the bottom up and are gradually trying to find their way back. The law and the organization of competitions, the licensing law, have to be much tougher. So FC Porto cannot be required under UEFA rules to meet its obligations to clubs to which it owes capital and money because of player signings, while there are clubs that file PERs [Economic Recovery Plans] and wipe out those debts as if they were nothing through PERs and continue to stay in the Primeira Liga, while there are clubs that are honorable and meet their obligations, pay their obligations, pay their wages, pay the clubs from which they buy players… And that is above all the picture: the picture of infrastructure, of technology — VAR technology, automatic offside technology, goal-line technology — therefore, investment in technology, investment in infrastructure, investment in stadiums… So, if we were to quickly show footage very soon from the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian leagues, for example — not to mention the Dutch and Belgian leagues, which should be our level because they are the teams ranked seventh and eighth in the UEFA rankings — we see modern, full stadiums, strong regional representation, large fan bases in motion, unique conditions. And, as an example, the Danish league is starting to pay more and more because it is growing with the athletes it has, despite being a league that exports players. This means that in the future, if Portuguese clubs are not careful, they will also start losing out to those markets, they will start losing talent, they will start losing competitive capacity and, gradually, the situation could get worse and worse,” said the FC Porto official.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.