FC Porto agree new arena deal with Porto council, pay €525k over 70 years | OneFootball

FC Porto and the Porto City Council today formalized, at the Town Hall, the deed that authorizes the club to build a new multi-sports pavilion at the former Ramalho Ortigão School, intended for training and adapted sports.

The transfer of surface rights over the land will allow the club to bring together the different age groups of various sports, with a special focus on women's sports, and to expand activities related to adapted sports.

The ceremony was attended by the president of FC Porto, André Villas-Boas, and the mayor, Rui Moreira.

“This is a significant step for FC Porto. Not only in continuing its social and sporting impact in the municipality, but also because it allows for diversified growth. We will no longer have to ‘carry our house on our backs,’ one of our major problems. This would not have been possible without the invaluable help of the Porto City Council, in this last act of a great Porto supporter [Rui Moreira], to whom FC Porto is deeply grateful,” said Villas-Boas.

The land is located in the eastern part of the city, next to the Campanhã swimming pools, which the club has used since 2015.

Two days before meeting his successor, Rui Moreira reflected on the achievements of his administration in the area of sports over the past 12 years, expressing satisfaction at having restored the “difficult relations” that existed between the club and the municipality.

“When we arrived, one of our concerns was to normalize the municipality’s relations with the city’s main institutions. With FC Porto, we were living through turbulent times. Right at the start, we made an agreement regarding the swimming pools, one of the most important symbolic acts. Then, we gave further signs—whether in celebrating FC Porto’s titles here, the home of all Porto residents, or in all the work we maintained regarding sports practice,” explained the mayor.

The agreement grants the club a concession of the land for 70 years, as part of a Sports Development Program Contract with a financial contribution of 525,000 euros.

In the first four years, FC Porto will pay the municipality a symbolic amount of 50 euros per month, which will then increase to 10,900 euros per year.

“This is a good deal for the city. If it weren’t for FC Porto, we would have to make this investment ourselves. I am very pleased that the club is willing to do it. This was not a decision of the mayor, but of the executive and the municipal assembly. Over these years, we have managed to unite the political forces in sports,” concluded Rui Moreira.

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