Cristóvão Carvalho on Benfica TV: aiming for the Champions League | OneFootball

Cristóvão Carvalho was interviewed by BTV due to his participation in the elections for the Presidency of Benfica. The candidate for President of Clube da Luz is among the contenders for the upcoming elections, which will take place on October 25. Read the full interview here - and check out the conversation with another candidate here.

"I felt that Benfica needed a change. Benfica is not doing well financially or in sports. The new statutes have brought some freshness. We want a fully professional Benfica, both in the SAD and the club. Benfica still has an associative and amateur structure. Given the number of athletes it manages, it needs to have a professional structure."

Remunerated or not?

"I truly believe that not only the president but also the governing bodies need to be remunerated. The new statutes solved this problem. With this, we will have professional people working at the club, and in the end, we can attribute results because they were indeed remunerated. Now this range has opened, and I think Benfica has benefited from it. It has brought added value to Benfica. It's good for Benfica, and I fully agree."

Professional football

"Our project was designed for European Benfica. It's the only project based on European Benfica, a project where we can easily compete in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Champions League. And aim, in seven years, for a Champions League. Benfica cannot grow without aspiring to have European titles. In sports, it is crucial to promote 2 or 3 players from our youth academy to the main team. If they succeed, they must be paid according to their quality. Then, we need a project coach willing to stay at Benfica for 4 or 5 years. Only then. In 5 or 6 years, we can compete in quarter-finals and semi-finals, then it will be a matter of luck."

"Internally, it's very simple. Having a team that competes for European titles abroad, we won't have problems winning trophies domestically. From the third or fourth year, we will have hegemony in Portugal."

Missing names on the list

"I'm not someone who went after people who are out of work. I want to go after the best of the best. You don't choose a sports director just because they are available in the market. When we arrive, we will go after the best of the best. My project is not based on emotion and names. In the first two months, we will have people who will give Benfica the results it deserves. I won't hire now to dismiss later. Our coach is very recent. I don't undervalue Benfica's internal staff. That's not what you do in a serious company."

«Benfica needs excellent players»

"There is a great demotivation among our young athletes because the model implemented in football doesn't allow them that. I want to end this. My solution is financial. I want to give them that hope. They need to stay 2 or 3 years in the main team, and it's not difficult. To value them, the team must be stable. Then it's the multi-club system. We need to go after third-tier clubs to implement the Benfica model and school. This way, we can reach the best of the best, and when they come to Benfica, they won't need time to adapt because in a club like Benfica, time is money. Benfica needs excellent players, and we need to open up to that market. We need to export players, but also coaches, through the Benfica method. Brazil and Argentina are vast markets. Benfica is a brand that can do this very easily."

Youth development and main team

"The dialogue between the technical team and the project is fundamental, which is why I don't believe in 1-2 year projects. It has to be for 5-6 years. When a very rigid method is implemented, it takes away the joy from the young players. In this project, we will seek people who truly know what they are talking about. We have good coaches, very good training, a very good school in our Academy. If you ask me what I prefer, I prefer a player who plays with joy and scores goals, even if they are not as tactically rich."

Women's football

"It has a lot of room to grow, and you can see it. There will have to be some investment. It's a different kind of football. The spectacle will have to be different, but it's a football of the future and different. More and more people are watching the games when they are at Luz. We have a very good team, it needs some tweaks. We need to have a European Benfica."

Club and SAD sustainability: debt that multiplied

"It was one of the concerns we foresaw when I ran. I am very rational, I really like Benfica to win - for me, it would always win 15-0, both in football and other sports - but if Benfica is not well-structured financially, we won't be able to win. Benfica has a very large debt and has another problem that is killing us every year: we always need 100 million euros year after year. How has this problem been solved? By selling players. I am the only candidate who has a solution. If I don't have 100 million euros each year, I won't be able to structure Benfica. Costs are rising very high: we need to understand why. We believe we can reduce by about 15%. Benfica sells itself little. Benfica has so many people who want to do business that it spends its life doing business. But Benfica needs to go out, to America, to Africa. I have a 400 million euro credit line so that this amount allows me to have peace of mind and not the need to sell players, especially those I want to keep in the main team. This money will give me time to deal with other important issues, like the naming of the Stadium. If I have to use these 400 million euros, they will be paid because all the work we will do will generate revenue for that."

Audio-visuals

"I don't like the way the negotiation is going. Benfica left and did wrong. By leaving, we didn't defend our interests. I don't support the narrative that Benfica wants more than others. Benfica has two years to renegotiate, and there is something the Board did - it didn't solve it now and left it for whoever succeeds in leadership. Why does Benfica have to go into such a negotiation selling its rights? The partner we will choose is fundamental. It is identified, and at this table, we only find one or two with that financial capacity, and it won't be in Portugal. I think Benfica would earn 3 or 4 times more than if it sold its rights. After that 2028 window, I hope Benfica has made an excellent negotiation. Whether we will have smaller clubs or play two or three times, I don't know. Benfica only has to worry about winning championships."

BTV

"BTV is an armed wing of Benfica, just like the members. It has to be open. BTV is always in the Casas do Benfica. People tell me they would like to have BTV. In this negotiation of mine for television rights, I want free games for Benfica members who are up to date with their fees."

Stadium naming

"I believe Benfica hasn't sold because it hasn't received any proposal it considers serious. A brand that wants to connect with a club, that club cannot be dragged by legal issues, but also because the club doesn't have European projection. If we achieve it, I have no doubt we will have a huge profit."

Sports

"We have spent a lot of money and few results, but the women's side has been better. We have a lot of work to do. Sports are part of our DNA and our history. We want to get kids off the couch and get them into sports. We have been bringing in very expensive foreign players without return. We need to invest in Portugal. We need to choose one or two sports to put those teams playing in the Superleagues. This way, I have no doubt I can rebalance the accounts and make Benfica competitive."

Stadium and Seixal

"The Stadium and the Academy are as old as they are. It's possible to increase the Stadium's capacity, of course, but the problems are related to ticketing and parking spaces. There's no point in opening a series of stores when we have Colombo next door. We can expand even more in Seixal, it's essential to have an international school in Seixal. Benfica has been a bit behind, but nothing significant that can't be done."

Associativism and Statutes

"Benfica needs to reformulate how it communicates with the Casas do Benfica. Benfica left the Casas do Benfica completely abandoned. Each Casa do Benfica is a pain we have to carry with us. It's essential for Benfica to quickly get on the ground. They are fundamental. Statutes? They are much better than the previous ones, they have complex matters for the next president of Benfica, but let's not demonize them already."

«There is a lot of cronyism»

"Absolutely institutional relations because until now they haven't worked. There is a lot of cronyism. We are big enough to make our own way. They are not our enemies, they are our adversaries. If we are fantastic on the field, score many more goals, and win, we will always have many more people who will speak ill of us. We have our own headquarters for that."

Legacy

"I would like to have a Benfica with the right accounts, with money, with a fantastic past in the Champions League, and give my successor what is necessary to continue giving Benfica fans what they all desire: titles."

Infrastructure

"We need to complement the infrastructure to avoid too much competition. A hotel and a college were planned. We will have to invest in the Benfica Campus. I don't know if they asked the City Hall about that estate or not. We want the families of our young players, who are always well in the space, where they eat, where they sleep, to be 'blocked', in a good sense, from the rest. We didn't expand Seixal at the time because it belonged to the Setúbal diocese and the Bishop who was there... Possibly it will allow for 4/5 fields and another hotel hub. We will certainly need more rooms to always have many young people at the Benfica Academy. More and more parents are going to see the young players, and this hotel will allow parents to benefit from the trip. If they need to stay another day, the costs will be covered by Benfica. When we have all this, we will be attractive again for all families who want to be at Benfica."

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