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João Noronha Lopes interview with Lusa agency.
Coach João Noronha Lopes wants the hegemony of Portuguese football, but also the return of Benfica to the elite of European football, a competition in which the club ceased to have a strong presence and this season was eliminated.
“Luís Filipe Vieira promised us Europe, but he never took us out of the second circular,” the candidate for the presidency of Benfica, and two other candidates, Rui Gomes, stressed in an interview with the Lusa news agency. da Silva and Luís Miguel David.
At 54, the coach, former president for southern Europe of a multinational in the food sector, points to a return to the club, where he was vice president in 2000 under the direction of Manuel Vilarinho, then in a historically very difficult period.
João Noronha Lopes says he wants to give Benfica back its prestige in the “showcase” of European football, in which this season it has no longer managed to qualify, and argues that a management based on a sports director is needed.
“My idea of sports hegemony is not to win five championships out of 10, I grew up in a decade when we won eight championships out of 10, when Benfica was feared in Europe. Here is a completely different starting point from Vieira, what is the great difference “It’s called organization, competition and structure for football, instead of having a president who decides alone and changes his mind every year, based only on himself,” explained the candidate.
In Europe, Noronha Lopes recalled the eighth final of the Championships in August, in Lisbon, to explain that it is not necessary to be a “European shark” to be in the big decisions, as happened with other clubs, with financial universes more similar to the of Benfica.
“Atalanta, Lyon [equipas que estiveram na fase final em Lisboa], Sevilla and Ajax have total income within our league, these clubs have professional sports management and someone who sees sports management as the main objective of the club, but not so much to hold the accounts, obviously the accounts are important, I am a Manager and I know it, but the accounts have to be fundamental for sporting success ”, he defended.
The coach also pointed out that none of these clubs has the “historical greatness”, the “number of fans” or the “growth potential” of Benfica: “the difference is that there was competition to go further and, I repeat, with their own income “. championship”.
To achieve results, Noronha Lopes wants a sports director capable of articulating important areas, negotiating and articulating between the president and the coach.
“I have a perfectly identified profile, someone who knows Portuguese football well, knows international football, who understands what Benfica is and who guarantees the identity of Benfica’s football, who chooses the coach, and who is not elected.” for the coaches, someone who has the ability to take all these areas of football, prospecting, training, the international planning area and obviously the main team and team B, “he added, without revealing names.
By not announcing her pick for the job, Noronha Lopes wants to maintain stability with the current season.
“I am not going to do anything that endangers the stability of the club in the middle of the sports season, Jesus is the club’s coach, the organization is there and it would be a huge irresponsibility, in the middle of the sports season, to introduce a new organization.” a new structure in Benfica football ”, he added.
Jorge Jesús is also the coach that Noronha Lopes intends to have at the head of the team, but with the promise of better resources.
“He is the coach of Benfica for the next two seasons. He is an intelligent man, he wants to win as much as I do. What I will do to Jorge Jesús is that I will create conditions for him to win, more than those created by the current president. What happened in This preseason was once again revealing of the amateurism and incompetence with which Benfica football is preparing, we walked a month behind a ghost, we did not fill the squad with some positions that the coach wanted and, therefore, we arrived at the first game of the season with the squad which was not what the coach wanted, as the coach himself has already admitted ”, he said.
For this season, with Benfica inserted in the Europa League, the objectives are clear: “you have to be champion this year, you have to win the Europa League and I will do everything possible to make that happen,” added the candidate to the B list. .
In the modalities, the current coexistence of two vice presidents is strange [Domingos Almeida Lima e Fernando Tavares] and proposes a ‘vice’ for eclecticism and a general director of sports, close to reality and to whom the team directors will report.
“I think we can have the modalities competing, but the feeling that I have many times in relation to some modalities is that we sign up to participate and not to win, and therefore, regarding the modalities we have some problems that we have in football, Lack of sporting ambition, there is a lack of organization, lack of competition and a structure that really makes them more successful ”, he criticized.
Elections at Benfica are scheduled for Wednesday, from 08:00 to 22:00, in Pavilion 2 of the Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon, and in 24 clubs of the club.
Four candidates compete for the first time in the club’s history, in addition to Noronha Lopes (list B), current president Luís Filipe Vieira (A), Luís Miguel David (C) and Rui Gomes da Silva (D).
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