Ex-Rui Costa deputy slams Benfica for selling irreplaceable stars | OneFootball

Fernando Tavares, former vice-president for sports at Benfica and responsible for women's football, expressed concern about the future of the sport, partly due to a lack of investment and the sale of star players from the Benfica squad.

The dissatisfaction arose after an attendance of 2,645 spectators was recorded at the Benfica vs. Twente match (1-1) last Wednesday at Estádio da Luz, counting for the third round of the Champions League group stage: "This low attendance reveals the possible regression of women's football in the country and the growing disinterest of fans," he began by writing on the social network Linkedin.

The former director addressed Benfica's central role in the development of the sport over the past seven years. He recalled that, thanks to investment, it was possible to achieve European prominence, with the Eagles rising from 97th to 10th place in the European ranking and reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League in just three years.

"The club once recorded 27,000 fans at a match against Sporting, which contrasts with just over 2,000 spectators at the last European game. This lack of interest results from the disinvestment in the quality of the team. Losing players like Kika Nazareth, Ana Vitória, and Chloé Lacasse are just a few examples of irreparable departures," he explained.

According to Fernando Tavares, after the historic qualification for the Champions League quarter-finals, a significant strengthening of the squad was expected to bring Benfica closer to the "European dream": "The idea that Portuguese women's football is not keeping up with the effort made by Benfica and that, for this reason, it is necessary to halt investment (...) will make the sport regress," points out Fernando Tavares.

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