FC Porto accounts: André Villas-Boas stresses “commitment to transparency” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas highlights the effort of the SAD in stabilizing FC Porto's finances. In the 2024/25 report, the accounts are positive, in a year that recorded more than 170 million euros in sales.

«FC Porto – Futebol, SAD is publishing this year its first Integrated Annual Report – a milestone in the 132-year journey of its parent club, FC Porto. It is a story built on boundless dedication, achievements, resilience, and vision for the future, which has brought us here with the same desire to continue doing more and better. This document materializes our commitment to transparency, excellence, and sustainability.

We are experiencing a cycle of increasing professionalization of management, greater regulatory demands, digital transformation, and immediate interactions with a myriad of stakeholders. We will not lose our closeness with our Members and supporters. The uniqueness that characterizes us – and is recognized by all – lies in the strength of collectively living the Club’s immutable values and in the way they have been interpreted throughout our journey, which allows us to adapt to new contexts while always remaining united and cohesive. By adopting better reporting practices, we reinforce this way of being, aligning ourselves with international standards and with the main benchmarks of global companies, organizations, and the biggest sports clubs. In this way, we express our pioneering spirit – both nationally and internationally – in the way we organize ourselves and communicate who we are and what we do. FC Porto is, unequivocally, a global club, capable of dialoguing, competing, and inspiring on any stage.

It is important to remember that this investment in reporting comes after a year lived under particular circumstances which, in sporting terms, fell short of FC Porto’s expectations and traditions, even though we won the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira.

The 2024/2025 year should be seen as the launch of a new cycle, which aims to be clearly more positive and victorious. It was a period of intense operational and financial restructuring, which resulted in the growth of commercial revenues – through the increase in the number of Members, the sale of annual seats, and ticketing – factors that helped mitigate the impact of not participating in the Champions League.

We set and achieved significant cost reduction targets: (i) in human resources – including costs with the Board of Directors; (ii) in supplies and external services – including representation expenses; and (iii) in financial costs, following the refinancing of debt under more favorable conditions. This restructuring, combined with the very significant results from player transactions, allowed FC Porto – Futebol, SAD to present the highest net profit in its history and fully comply with UEFA’s financial sustainability rules in the 2024/2025 year. We significantly reduced the impact of the non-compliance recorded in the previous year and created conditions for sustainable investment in the main football team, which started the 2025/2026 season with renewed ambitions.

The 2024/2025 season will also be deeply marked in our collective memory by losses that tested us – with particular emphasis on Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, the President of Presidents, Artur Jorge, the coach who gave us our first European Cup, and, after the end of the season, the brothers Diogo Jota and André Silva, two young men who gave us so much and still had so much to give, and Jorge Costa, a Captain who embodied what it means to be a Porto supporter and to fully live the Club’s values – losses that inspire and motivate us to continue the changes already started and to reinforce the strategic energy that guides us.

The change in governance and management, with new faces, brought greater diversity; we made an unequivocal commitment to women’s football; we innovated in organizational models; we embraced technological and digital transformation; and we deepened our relationship with our fans and communities, in Portugal and abroad. More than just fulfilling regulatory obligations, the publication of this Report results from a clear choice: we want to lead by example, providing integrated accountability on our governance and management, and on our sporting, financial, social, environmental, and cultural performance. The solidity and prestige of an organization like ours – holder of a globally recognized brand – depend on the ability to align strategy, ethics, innovation, social responsibility, and sustainability.

From this balance comes the creation of value, which we have the duty to deliver to future generations of Porto supporters. This is the time to take on structural challenges: promoting equality and inclusion; investing in the growing well-being of our Employees; reinforcing responsible environmental practices, advancing in energy efficiency and reducing our ecological footprint; cultivating training and sporting excellence more proactively; valuing our heritage; and affirming, more effectively, the FC Porto brand in an increasingly demanding, fast, and global world. All with objectives, goals, and indicators that allow us to rigorously measure the progress achieved. Our goal is to consolidate our position in national and European football and resume regular participation in the Champions League, an essential condition to ensure the Club’s sustainability.

Strict management, combined with a policy of sustained investment, will allow us to grow in sports and revenue, continuously investing in the improvement of processes and systems, and affirming FC Porto as a Winning Club and an efficient and leading organization. The active and resilient involvement of Members, Employees, and Partners, who have always responded by honoring FC Porto’s values, will allow us to overcome a period below our collective aspirations and, in the 2025/2026 season, fuel the well-founded hope of opening a new cycle that will return us to the level for which we were made – with ambition, discipline, and transparency. To every Member, Employee, Athlete, Partner, Sponsor, and to the entire Porto family, I extend my sincere thanks. FC Porto’s progress is only possible through the commitment, passion, and resilience of everyone, in true unity. This Report is our commitment to continue innovating, promoting ethics, sustainability, and rigor, defending the interests of FC Porto, and honoring an uninterrupted history of overcoming challenges. United, we remain strong – and with our eyes set on the future.»

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