André Villas-Boas rules out SAD investors: “No Benfica case at Porto” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas, president of FC Porto, ruled out this Saturday the possibility of foreign capital entering the club’s ownership in the future.

In remarks to the newspaper ECO, which marked its 10th anniversary this week, Villas-Boas rejected that scenario at a time when Benfica is considering blocking the entry of American investor Tim Leiweke into the share capital of SAD, through the fund Entrepreneur Equity Partners.

At issue are the businessman’s stakes in other European clubs, especially in Italy, where he invested around 100 million euros in Venezia, while also holding a stake in Spain’s Betis. Leiweke’s representatives, who have an agreement to acquire the shareholding of José António dos Santos, the “Chicken King,” have already been informed by Benfica that Article 13 of the club’s statutes allows them to block acquisitions of stakes above 2% by investors considered competitors.

“If American funds can buy FC Porto capital in the future? No, because my objective, as president of FC Porto’s board, is to keep FC Porto as a members’ club. Very little of our capital is floated on the stock market. FC Porto holds most of its capital and the rest is spread among Porto supporters, and I do not see a situation like the one that happened with Benfica happening here. For that to happen, there would have to be a financial collapse in FC Porto’s economic and financial sustainability, which we have managed to address immediately,” Villas-Boas said.

On another subject, when asked how he had managed to lead FC Porto to the national title just two years after becoming president, in an “alarming” economic context and with only eight thousand euros available, the executive gave his explanation.

“[The eight thousand euros] It’s not what people were saying, no! It’s what I found. Unfortunately, it’s not just what people were saying! FC Porto, especially in an initial phase, relied on members, who lent immediate capital so we could deal with short-term debt. We had 15 million euros to pay by the end of May when I took office, and the situation was alarming. We were supported by FC Porto members, who were very generous, and then we restructured FC Porto’s debt based on a long-term project related to ticketing and FC Porto’s commercial revenues, which allowed us to raise around 180 million in American debt and basically allowed FC Porto to survive and push its most pressing problems 25 years into the future, ensuring its financial sustainability,” he explained.

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