Former Benfica keeper warns Rui Costa on new season: he must step up | OneFootball

Benfica emerged strengthened from the General Assembly held last Saturday, with the approval of the budget for 26/27, but José Manuel Delgado believes the challenges are far from over. The goalkeeper who played for Benfica in the 1980s believes Rui Costa has secured stability to begin the new season, although he warns of the need to speed up the building of the squad led by Marco Silva.

"With several players away on national team duty at the World Cup, and still with doubts surrounding, for various reasons, the continuity of some of them and others, Rui Costa and Mário Branco should step things up so that, in line with what Marco Silva wants — avoiding it becoming "to each his own taste", as the old ice-cream vendors used to cry — they can create a cohesive and coherent group", he wrote in his opinion piece in the newspaper A BOLA.

The main focus of the analysis, however, is the centralization of television rights. The journalist recalls that the General Assembly produced a very clear position from the Eagles, conveyed by Nuno Catarino. "Beyond some hollow threats of "zero tolerance" towards the FPF and refereeing, what emerged was a position, conveyed by Nuno Catarino, regarding the centralized sale of television rights, which showed, on the one hand, how far that process is from being concluded, and on the other Benfica’s determination to remain faithful to what it has always said on this matter: "as long as we do not receive even one euro less than what we achieve, we do not oppose an increase in revenue being distributed among the other clubs"," it reads.

In José Manuel Delgado’s view, the conflict is far from over. "If the disagreement remains, if when the time comes to find out how much the operators are willing to pay for our professional football — and that will be the value of the product, not any of the figures that have been floated for years — and if Benfica feels it cannot accept that, it has become clear that it will take the legal route," he said.

It should be remembered that Benfica continues to be seen as a key element in this dossier, something that was publicly acknowledged by André Mosqueira do Amaral, executive director of the LPFP. "Benfica’s contribution is, obviously, indispensable", he told Agência Lusa.

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