Correspondent in Lisbon
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The Portuguese League may be living its last blows in its current format if the proposal that is on the table prospers. Without the income from spectator attendance, the stadiums not only languish at the image level, the brake on the coffers of each club is also evident, since an important collection vertex is lost.
It is true that the benefits derived from advertising and television rights stop, in part, the economic drain, but the fall is evident and the managers of the Professional League, led by Pedro ProençaThey try to redirect the situation with a desperate measure. This is a reduction in the number of participating teams with the intention of lowering the costs of the macrostructure and, above all, implementing a smaller number of days to play: from 34 to 30.
The profile pointed out draws a competition that goes from 18 to 16 participants, much more considering that most of the contestants play a role that almost makes them spectators of the fight that the big three undertake: Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, with some incursions from Sporting Braga, the fiefdom from which Trincao emerged, now at Barça.
The initiative must be submitted to the verdict of the next General Assembly of the Portuguese Football League, to be held between now and the end of June. This eventuality would lead to the consequent reduction in costs, which is the objective pursued, assuming that the health uncertainty continues without the end of the tunnel being seen.
The vaccination process should serve as a kind of ‘firewall’, but logistical difficulties delay the good prospects and the delay in the delivery of doses is taking a toll on the evolution of events.
So the so-called Primeira Liga has become unsustainable, especially for smaller teams, which cannot even rely on sales figures for merchandising that make minimal cash. Because, for example, a simple walk through the center of Lisbon allows you to verify that the official stores of the Benfica and Sporting They continue to attract curious and potential buyers, something that hardly happens if we move to Funchal (with the Nacional and the Marítimo) or Moreira de Conegos (Moreirense).
Only the Vitoria Guimaraes he manages to timidly approach the status of Braga, a city that is only 25 kilometers from the beautiful medieval town declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
This follows the canons set out in France by the president of Olympique de Marseille, Jacques-Henri Eyraud, who wants to put a stop to the “unsustainable” Ligue 1. The argument is to reduce costs because the current context of health and economic crisis means that a League with 18 is no longer sustainable, and that is why it is intended to go to 16. The number of days would go from 34 to 30, with which the structure of the League (chaired by Pedro Proença) would save. This reflects the proposal recently expressed by the president of Olympique de Marseille, Jacques-Henri Eyraud, to do the same in France. In Portugal much more because the League, in reality, is usually a matter of 4 teams: Benfica, Porto, Sporting de Lisboa and Sporting Braga. The proposal must go to a vote in the General Assembly of the League before June 30
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