Chairman Frederico Varandas reacts to the vote by club members

The 'Lista A' option was announced as the comprehensive winner in the Sporting Clube de Portugal elections on Saturday. After the results were confirmed, the re-elected Chairman of the Board, Frederico Varandas, hailed the choice by shareholders to opt for continuity.

"Today, stability at Sporting CP won. The members voted for stability. I would like to reiterate that it has been around 40 years since a president at Sporting CP has served a second term. Since then, Sporting CP have entered into a cycle of destructive instability. The win today is so important. It's not a win for the president or the board. It's a win for Sporting CP's stability. A few months ago, I had warned that Sporting CP need to learn to live in stability. We have had four decades of self-destruction that doomed our success," he said.

"We can have the best coaches, youth system, players and organization, but without stability we will not have sporting success. Sporting CP's members showed maturity by choosing stability."

"About three and a half years ago, I remember promising one thing: That we would reach this day and leave Sporting CP in a better position than when we arrived. That mission is accomplished. Today, with close to 86% of the Members voting for our mandate, our mission is the same: To serve Sporting CP. 

We will serve you with the same humility and responsibility as when we won with 42% of the votes. There is no greater honour for a Sporting CP member than serving their club. We will serve you, always thinking about the club first. We will continue to work discreetly, without making noise. Our objective today is the same as it was three and a half years ago and I promise the same thing. I don't promise trophies, but I do promise that my team and I will deliver a Sporting CP even better than it is today. 

I am very happy that today we have become a healthy, free, independent, winning and united Sporting CP. We are not based around a board or a president, but rather are united around those who matter: Sporting CP".

In response to questions from the media, Varandas underlined that "Sporting CP is a democratic club and is not a regime like North Korea. We respect opinions, we know the difficulties we have gone through and one of the great merits of my team is that we don't fall apart when something goes wrong. We also keep our feet on the ground when we have victories. I've never been too worried about noise from outside. Anyone who's been here knows that you always have to listen to Sporting CP members, who don't always have the information that the board have. Sometimes we have to make decisions that are not popular, but if they are the best for Sporting CP, then we will make them".

"Sporting CP's mission is to enhance what happens on the pitch, which is our core business. Every club is always dependent on results. Our objective is to create the conditions for Sporting CP, as the club's history demands, to fight for trophies. With each passing month, Sporting CP are stronger, more mature and competitive and more respected", he continued.

"What we have to do is make Sporting CP more capable of consistently winning. In these three and a half years, a lot has been done to get closer to our rivals, but these rivals are very strong and enjoy stability. Even today, they have a competitive advantage -albeit much less than they had three and a half years ago".