Revived Benfica still dreaming of Champions League glory

ZURICH — It is generally accepted in European football that winning the Champions League nowadays is beyond the means of any team from outside the so-called Big Five leagues.

Benfica would beg to differ, however, and last season’s Portuguese treble winners believe that, with a bit of luck and the right draw, they could have what it takes to have a crack at the title in the next few years.

Twice European champions and five-time runners-up before the advent of the Champions League, the Eagles were at arguably the lowest ebb in their history around 10 years ago.

They had failed to win a league title in a decade and to rub it in, they had to watch arch-rivals Porto win the Champions League in 2004 under Jose Mourinho.

Since then, Benfica have undergone a remarkable transition, multiplying their revenue, which reached just over 200 million euros ($245.90 million) for 2013/14, while retaining their traditional model where the members own the club.

The club has 230,000 members, each paying 156 euros annually, and an estimated 14 million supporters, including six million in Angola and Mozambique, according to Domingos Soares de Oliveira, head of the executive committee.

In a groundbreaking move, their home matches can only be watched on the club’s own television channel which has 300,000 subscribers, each paying 10 euros a month, and is available in 130 countries, Soares said.

On the field, Benfica won a domestic treble last season under fiery coach Jorge Jesus and reached the final of the Europa League, where they lost on penalties to Sevilla after a 0-0 draw.

But room for expansion is limited by the size of Portugal’s domestic market.

Like their great domestic rivals Porto, Benfica have adapted to the circumstances by developing a business model which is based on offering themselves as a springboard to the major leagues for South American and Eastern European players.

Players who departed in the summer included Serbian midfielder Lazar Markovic, sold to Liverpool for around 25 million euros, goalkeeper Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid for 16 million euros) and midfielder Andre Gomes, sold to Valencia for 15 million.

Argentina World Cup defender Ezequiel Garay and Paraguay forward Oscar Cardozo also left.

It is hugely frustrating for the fans, and Benfica paid the price when they were knocked out of the Champions League this season in the group stage. But Soares said there was no other way.

Small market

“The Portuguese market is too small for us to be able to hope to pay the best salaries,” he told Reuters at the International Football Arena conference in Zurich.

“We have to increase our income and we can only do that if the selling of players is part of the operation.”

Despite this, Benfica are determined to look beyond their eternal rivalry with Porto and Sporting, and have set their eyes on European success.

Having reached the Champions League quarter-finals in 2010 and 2012, and the Europa League final in 2013 and 2014, they believe that one day, they can still go all the way.

“It’s much more difficult for a team from Portugal than one from the major leagues, because, although our growth is similar to the growth of our biggest competitions, the difference just gets bigger and bigger,” said Soares.

“We have reached 200 million euros in revenue but others have reached 600 million, so it’s a lot of money.”

“But we should not give up on the fact that we can win the Champions League. You need to get through the group stage and then anything can happen, there could be a moment in which the combination of draws and results allows us to get to the final.

“We have to be prepared for when the right time comes around, so we need to keep working and doing the right thing.”