Jaime Marta Soares may snub Varandas in Sporting’s election | OneFootball

Frederico Varandas will run again for the position of top executive of Sporting, a club he has led since 2018, in elections scheduled for March 2026. Jaime Marta Soares, former president of the General Assembly, discussed the scenario and admits he might vote for "another person" if a candidate with a better profile emerges.

"It's no surprise that he wants to run again. What would he do? Go back to being Sporting's clinical director? It's natural and normal for him to do that. It's not natural to do it so far in advance. Someone who takes such an action is not sure that a candidate might appear. Many people don't like him, and this could bring some dissatisfaction to the surface and lead to a candidacy," he begins by telling the newspaper 'Record'.

Jaime Marta Soares would like to see other names step forward: "I would like not just one, but more than one to appear. When he was elected the first time, there were several candidates, and everything proceeded in a very Sporting manner with very deep democratic values. But that's part of the past. It's not new. What is new is doing it so far ahead of the elections. If it's to dissuade the possibility of someone advancing, it might have the opposite effect and someone might present themselves. I would like to draw conclusions to see how it would be with competition," he began to explain.

Even so, the former leader did not detail whether he expects competitors to emerge: "The guarantee of a president's success lies in the results of the main football team. If there is any change - and football is a box of surprises - things can turn around and immediately take away all the momentum that exists four months away. And my 20-something votes I will place on the person," he noted, before analyzing some jabs from Frederico Varandas at the rivals.

"Everyone proclaims to the four winds that Portuguese football is in a bad state and referees are treated below the lowest part of the human being itself. To err is human, but I don't believe that refereeing is so low that there is a loss of honorability among referees. This recurring warfare leads to scenes of violence against people in preventive detention and ends up with spats between leaders... this should be resolved in the proper places and with league and refereeing officials. If stupidity paid tax, leaders wouldn't have space for more stamps. I don't like incendiaries and never did as someone connected to firefighters. Fires are not fought; they are prevented. And the rule in football should be the same," he concluded.

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