No European club is as similar to Barça as Benfica: why?

Special envoy to LisbonA week ago, 20-year-old Portuguese girl Cristina Gomes Loureiro, from a small town called Carrazedo, near Braga, found herself on national television. A few days earlier she had decided to become a Benfica member and turned out to be the 400,000th. Barça's rival is the club with the most members in the entire world.

Benfica is not only loved in Lisbon. Where there are Portuguese, a people who have emigrated a lot, there are Benfica members. In African lands that were Portuguese colonies, such as Angola or Cape Verde, too. The team incarnate Benfica is a multi-sport giant with a growing membership. It is a club that is difficult to manage and control, with a social and political life that at times makes the problems faced by Barcelona seem insignificant. Its structure is already quite complex to understand. The members decide the president, who, as happens at Barça, does not receive a salary, every four years. "Benfica has always shown pride in being a democratic club. In fact, they were able to vote for their presidents even during the dictatorship, something that their fans always want to remember," says journalist Pedro Barata, from the newspaper ExpressHowever, in this case you can stand as many times as you like, chaining mandates in an entity that manages different companies. The members vote for a president and a board of directors that vote on the agreements in an assembly of 800 members. The company that manages professional football is listed on the stock exchange. It was the first of the various subsidiaries that the club controls, sometimes with participation in the shareholding of other investors, as is the case with those that manage the parking lot of the Da Luz stadium, an insurance company, an audiovisual production company, a clinic or sections outside of football. This complex structure includes subsidiaries in the United States or Luxembourg and allows Benfica to invest in different sectors to seek greater income.

A true giant in the hands of a former player. When Joan Laporta goes to lunch with the Portuguese board on Wednesday, he will once again meet one of the best footballers in history, Rui Costa. The elegant midfielder who shone at Milan and Fiorentina, a time when he was repeatedly linked with a possible move to Barça, was elected president of the club of his life in 2021. He played the first years of his career and, now retired, he also served as sporting director, creating a magnificent team with names such as Aimar, Saviola, Ramires and Reyes. At that time, it was said in European football that as a sporting director, Costa maintained the good taste he had had as a player. In 2020, the former player was vice president of the board of Luis Filipe Vieira, the president who was beginning his sixth term. No one has ever been in charge of Benfica for as long as Vieira, a self-made man who went from being a bricklayer to having a construction empire. Vieira, first chosen in 2003, connected with Benfica's members, usually humble people, with his style, his shouts and his friendly attitude.

But behind Vieira's pleasant laugh and his story of overcoming was a man willing to do anything. In 2021 it became known that he was being investigated for tax fraud, money laundering and fraud, both in his companies and especially in the management of Benfica. Vieira is said to have negotiated to sell 25% of the company that manages professional football to the American magnate John Textor, the current owner of the French Lyon, the English Crystal Palace and the Brazilian Botafogo. He did not inform the Federation, the Portuguese commercial commission or the partners. But he received a million euros in advance. The president ended up arrested along with his partner José Antonio dos Santos, owner of 16% of the Benfica football club. Over time, new scandals emerged, such as Vieira allegedly receiving commission on more than 50 player signings. In one case, he pocketed 2.5 million from just three players.

"It was not a surprise, he was a dark figure and there had already been information in 2015," says Barata. The president ended up with a sentence of house arrest and had to surrender his passport. Initially, he tried to stay in office, but accused and locked up at home, he was forced to resign. And so Costa became president in the spring of 2021. That same year he organized elections and won them comfortably, with 84.48% of the votes, ahead of businessman Francisco Benítez. "Costa does not speak in public, he prefers to use other loudspeakers. He arrived as a candidate for Vieira and maintained many things, such as not being a fan of giving explanations and having many connections with Jorge Mendes," reasons Barata. Now, this coming October, he faces new elections.

The parallels between Barça and Benfica

In theory, Rui Costa will stand, but it is not known whether he will win. In these four years he has fought with Vieira, who after being convicted appealed in cases still pending, trying to avoid having to pay million-dollar fines. The former player has wanted to distance himself from who had been his protector, to sell a modern and clean image of the club. The result has been a full-blown civil war inside and outside the offices of Benfica. Costa had more than 15 people resign from his position, including directors and workers. In fact, in 2024 a reform of the statutes was approved in which, for example, the Casas do Benfica, a kind of fan club spread around the world that had the right to 50 votes, were left without the right to vote. It was a way of undermining part of the power that Vieira still has over the fan clubs. The elections have a system that rewards loyalty: those who have been members for between 1 and 5 years have one vote, but those who have been members for between 5 and 10 years already have five votes per person. If you have been a member for between 10 and 25 years, the value per person is 10 votes and if you have been a member for more than 25 years, 20 votes. The elections, by the way, are carried out on a screen, digitally, but you have to go to the polling stations. In the last ones, 25 were installed throughout Portugal. Many members cannot vote. In 2021, about 38,000 voted.

This October it is time to go to the polls again and Vieira, now free, does not stop talking. Publicly, he says he does not want to talk about candidates out of respect for Costa, although he admitted that he does not share his way of doing things. Behind the scenes, he meets with possible candidates. And his trusted men do not sit still. The big question now is whether Vieira will dare to stand at 75 years of age in an election that would be a fratricidal duel against Rui Costa. Or if he will delegate it to a trusted man in an election that could have up to five candidates. "Rui Costa is an idol, he should win, but there is a certain unease. He moved away from that image of a popular club to do something more modern, with light shows and DJs in the stadium that people do not always like. Bernardo Silva [Manchester City player], for example, is a great fan of the club," the shield reads above.

As in Barcelona, ​​if the ball goes in, the board comes out stronger. And Benfica is fighting for the lead with Sporting and Porto, in a three-way battle similar to that of the Spanish League. It is also alive in the Cup, like Barça. And it is playing for the Champions League. In many ways, both clubs are similar. Also in having a complicated social life, with former presidents on trial, scandals and very eventful elections.