Everything Martim Mayer said on Benfica TV: I'd like to serve two terms | OneFootball

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

"It is a great honor and a great pleasure to be here. Benfica has been underutilized; it is a much larger club. I am running for elections because I have a proposal that counters this. This is at the core of the reasons why I am a candidate; the fans must have the possibility to choose a very large Benfica at the top of Europe."

"I believe I should be compensated, and my entire Board should be compensated for a very simple reason: commitment."

Sports Model

"A sports model with a guiding thread and a medium-term vision. A week ago, I introduced Mr. Andries Jonker. I count on our coach José Mourinho and our director Mário Branco. They are very focused on the day-to-day. We want to be more incisive in our scouting to add value to what we have inside. 50% of the main team must come from the youth academy and the remaining 50% from well-chosen purchases. This is how we will work."

Market

"We sell too early and out of necessity. We have very low average capital gains compared to our rivals; we need to reverse this. Benfica is the Largest Club in Portugal. The indicators are not good, and we need to reverse them. The last financial year was good, but on average, we have 70 million euros to resolve every season. Therefore, the pressure to sell is greater. We need to reverse this to make the best sports decisions and have a team more capable of fighting for a European title and a Champions League year after year."

Youth Academy

"We have numerous threats emerging from various geographical areas of the country. We abandoned national scouting, and we need to reverse this situation. We need to be on top of all talent. The sooner we go after the emerging talent, the better. We need to reverse this situation. It has a lot to do with Andries Jonker's vision. It is important that in Seixal there is a school, to house the families of the kids, so they are more comfortable. With our proposal, we want to bring a 306-degree project to the players."

Vision on Professional and Youth Football

"A Benfica coach has an average tenure of one year and four months since 1904. They cannot think in the medium term. They have to think about completing the four-year term with me; that person is Andries Jonker. We need to prepare talent from the under-13s to prepare a game model, and all this has to materialize in the A team. If they used to reach their peak at 18, we want this peak to arrive earlier, at 16. This is what German and Spanish clubs are doing. We can see the example of Lamine Yamal. Benfica has all the conditions to do the same. There is great complementarity between Mourinho, Mário Branco, and Andries Jonker. The sum of these parts will bring much success, I have no doubt."

Women's Football

"I intend to create a stadium in Seixal that is an Inferno da Luz for women's football. Andries Jonker has a lot of culture and knowledge about women's football. I have no doubt he will be very competent in doing so."

Do you intend to audit the accounts?

"I do not intend to audit the accounts; I want to look at the present and the future. If it needs to be done, we will do it. If there is any reason to look back, we will be here to do it. Audits are not announced; they are done. I have been an industrialist for 10 years and gained much from cost analysis with this 'Kaizen' philosophy. We are overspending. It is possible to reduce up to 20% of Benfica's current costs. We will tackle this issue from day one so that Benfica's sustainability is a topic."

Costs and Revenues

"We will reduce up to 20% of 200 million euros, which is, roughly, the average costs of Benfica's SAD. On the revenue side, I think I am the only proposal that explains how. We will expand the stadium, and once we have that completed, we will bring 20 million euros to cash flow. We will need 24 to 36 months to do it. We will open offices in Newark, in Geneva. We have cities with more than 100,000 fans. We need to open representation offices; we need to work with the local Benfica Houses. We need to open academies. No one says that in Boston we shouldn't create a Basketball Academy or that in Montreal we can't open a Hockey Academy... not forgetting the PALOP. We will open the Benfica Mozambique Card and the Benfica Angola Card and in Maputo open the Eusébio Stadium. From the 3rd year, we will be able to bring 15 million dollars from Mozambique and Angola. With the stadium expansion, we have the deficit resolved without selling João Neves."

Bond Loans

"Bond loans are a good solution, but despite that, we have other options. Benfica cannot be worth 150 million euros on the stock exchange; we need to add another zero to that. We need to multiply Benfica's equity by five. Adidas should have 10% of Benfica. We become the first global club in the world. Audiovisuals are increasingly important for today's football world. I would like another of Benfica's strategic shareholders to be from the audiovisual world. They should be for at least 25 years, obviously ensuring that the club will always have 67% of Benfica's SAD."

Audiovisuals and TV Rights

"The market value of Benfica's rights is around 65 million euros per season. Secondly, I asked President Rui Costa not to bind the club to any decision before knowing who the next president will be. Benfica is indeed the largest Portuguese club and the largest social movement. The Benfica Economy is expressed by the number of people who want to see Benfica and the method that will award the tender to someone must be protected. We need to invite the right partners to submit proposals for this tender."

"Benfica cannot lose a penny. Benfica must lead the process and present the solution. We have the opposition of many other clubs, and we represent 80% of the other clubs. We have to organize everything for the sake of Portuguese football, but we cannot ignore that the first step to selling Portuguese football abroad is that we need to improve the infrastructure. While we are talking about other topics, we are ignoring the elephant in the room. There are several issues from the perspective of the television product that involves improving infrastructure. BTV, and I thank you for being here, must belong to the members and not the Benfica Board. It must have a decision-making center with considerable autonomy. It must work for the members. It must be paid in my view, but there is something that can be done with the issue of TV rights, which is to drastically lower the value of BTV. By lowering the weight of the television package, we could go from 365,000 subscribers to 4 million."

Sports Modalities

"In men's sports, it hasn't been going well, but in women's sports, it has. We need to do two things: bring all the infrastructure to the same place. We need to create the Benfica Campus for Sports Modalities. We need 25,000 hectares to group all our sports in one location. Additionally, in seniors, I propose making several paradigm shifts; we don't have to pay above market rates. Athletes must come to Benfica to win, not because they want to earn more."

Infrastructure

"By increasing the stadium by 15,000 seats, it guarantees part of the revenue. Being financed over 10 years, in an 80 million euro operation, we can not only amortize this financing but also achieve a cash flow of 20 million euros from the first year. We will create the Sports Modalities Campus with a municipality with its own capital."

Associativism and Statutes

"The Members' Council will have 20 members invited by me and another 20 for any members who want to sign up. The Benfica Houses must be the places where all our teams from all modalities, except the A team of professional football, must have lunch and dinner. It brings joy to the members. Statutes? I am in favor."

"They don't respect us as they should"

"Benfica has not had correspondence between its economic and institutional value. That is why they don't respect us as they should. We need to address the root problem, which involves knowing how to defend Benfica with institutionalism and showing what our social, economic, and social weight is."

The legacy I would like to leave if I win the elections

"I would very much like to serve two terms: 8 years. If I have the vote of the Benfica fans, the project I have in mind is for 8 years, and I would like to leave 8 championships and European progression. Benfica has everything to win a European Cup."

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