President takes part in university's Sports Week

Sporting's president was invited to speak as part of the Nova School of Business & Economic's Sports Week this Thursday, hosted in Universidade Nova de Lisboa's main auditorium. Student Association president Bernardo Branco Gonçalves took on the role of moderator for the session covering issues ranging from the monopolisation of football, the introduction of new technologies, television rights and the massive growth in transfer fees.

Bruno de Carvalho actually started his career as a manager in the business world, where he picked up some of the fundamental skills for managing a modern football club. We have to understand what a club is. We are talking about something that involves a lot of emotion. Management has to be very professional, but of course an emotional touch is needed as well to coordinate everything. For us, the big challenge was moving away from the idea that fans are clients, bringing them back to feeling a connection with the club. I believe the strength of this institution is in its fans and if you take that away, then you take away the ability to generate profit."

The future naturally worries the Alvalade president, with the five main leagues around the continent dominating football. "If an elite league comes into being, then Portugal will be out of it. The Champions League will finish, because sponsors will go for that elite league instead. The Portuguese league would literally disappear", added Bruno de Carvalho.