“A coach has several conditions, and Rui Borges is not valued...”

Nthe Portugal Football Summit in Oeiras, Frederico Varandas considered that the presence in the Champions League “is completely indispensable” for the club and that the competition of the quarter finals last season was very important.

“ I'm gonna overreact a little bit, but it's the difference between the club being alive or dead. It is to enter immediately with 40 million euros (ME) liquid. It's important to get the season ready. The presence in the final rooms is something extraordinary, it is a feat of the coach, today very media ", assumed.

Balconies recalled that the presence at this stage was “a performance that gave 80 ME”, admitting that it would exchange for a title, although this value goes “far beyond what is needed today, it gives conditions to continue growth”, so the Champions League “is the main goal”.

“A coach’s performance has several conditionings, and this one is not very valued,” Balconies lamented, who recalled the triumph over Galatasaray in the league debut of ‘Champions’ this season, highlighting the budget gap between Sporting and the Turkish champion, who “contracts players in Bayern Munich, Manchester City.”.

Pointing several times the five years in a row with SAD profit ‘leonina’, the president assumed that the decision to sell players “is not a choice is an obligation”, ensuring that “Sporting needs players who can grow the club and can grow” and that “then it has to make more value”.

“ The five years of making a profit allowed us to make the biggest investment ever in SAD, about 120 ME of investment, but we made about 150 ME of sales. We are talking about a very strong but fully sustained investment. We'll never take a step further than the leg, even if there's a hysterism to win. I know it's important to win, but always with sustainability and guarantee of the future. For the year Sporting will continue to be competitive and to fight for the titles”, he said.

Elected for the first time in 2018, Frederico Varandas recalled his most difficult moment, after his second season, that the club ended in the fourth position of the I Liga, with the sale of Bruno Fernandes and the need to lower costs.

“ We made a decision to stay on course. In the third year we lowered the wage bill even further and invested less than in the fourth year. We were so prepared to go wrong, and not finish the term or not get re-elected. We followed the way, but we managed incredibly to be champions”, he recalled.