Belenenses president Patrick Morais de Carvalho says it would be an affront to Portuguese football if Chelsea bought a stake in 19-time Primeira Liga champions Sporting Lisbon.
The Blues’ owners Clearlake Capital are looking to expand their portfolio of teams and kickstarted their multi-club project by buying a majority stake in French side Strasbourg in the summer.
They have also held talks with Sporting about acquiring a stake in the historic Portuguese side, a move that would allow them to cherry-pick from the club’s conveyor belt of academy talents.
But Morais de Carvalho, who runs Portuguese second-tier side Belenenses, has hit out at the reports and feels it would be ‘offensive’ to his nation if Chelsea bought Sporting and effectively turned them into a feeder club.
‘We have to define the financing model we want for Belenenses for the coming years. There are some models that are in fashion that do not interest us,’ he said on Wednesday in a meeting with club members.
‘One of those is the multi-ownership of clubs, as happens with Red Bull and the City Group.
‘The second known financing model disgusts me and Belenenses even more and has to do with a trend of clubs buying other clubs.
‘For example, in Portugal there has been news that Chelsea want to buy Sporting.
‘I think it is a plan and an intention that offends Portugal. In this case it also offends Sporting fans and fans of Portuguese football in general.
‘This is not the future. For us it is unthinkable that Belenenses would ever be acquired by another club. Belenenses is not willing to be the “B team” of any European or world club.’
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Chelsea’s takeover of Strasbourg was treated with similar disdain by fans and the supporters club wrote a damning open letter on Wednesday slamming the move, saying fans ‘don’t relate to their team at the moment.’
‘Since the purchase, we are only a training centre and a secondary piece in a global business,’ read the letter.
It added: ‘We wish to remind you that multi-club ownership is a danger to football. The pyramid system that this system is slowly locking into place, and even more strongly than was already the case, risks reducing the majority of clubs to a simple objective of developing young players and helping the few clubs at the top of the pyramid in order to yield a profit for their business. Clearly, it is a very worrying perspective.’
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