Interview with Santa Clara's president: 'We're going to the Primeira Liga to stay there”
By beating União de Leiria (2-0) in the last game of the season in the Portuguese second league, Santa Clara were crowned champions and earned the promotion that will have the club return to the top flight in Portugal.
In an interview from S. Miguel in the Azores, Santa Clara President Ricardo Pacheco revealed to O Jornal the improvements that have been made to the club and talked about some of the key factors during this season, while reaffirming his admiration and appreciation for the Santa Clara fans spread throughout the diaspora.
“As I have been saying since October 2021, when I arrived at the club, our priority is our diaspora because I believe that it is with the diaspora that Santa Clara can reach the next level,” said Pacheco. “I would like to send a big hug to all the Azoreans, our tenth island, as I often say, our biggest island. It is really a joy to be able to share this moment with them.”
Last season, Santa Clara finished in last place. But instead of wasting time grieving woes because of the relegation, the club’s management began to prepare for the new season even before the demotion was confirmed.
“We prepared for this season in April of last year,” he said. “We started preparing it with fantastic players. I remember our first acquisition, Luís Rocha, our center-back who is a real captain, a real man, he’s the true boss on the pitch. Then we brought together a group of people, the new athletes who arrived and those who remained, and we managed to build a very united, very friendly group.”
From the beginning, the responsibility of representing a region was instilled in the group, he said.
“Santa Clara, when they play… I receive messages from everywhere,” he said. “I know [it’s like] the Azores are playing. The land of our parents, of our children, is playing, and we must be very proud to be Azoreans.”
The team fully embraced this message and turned in a brilliant campaign. After the title was confirmed, earned under the flawless leadership of Coach Vasco Matos, the club's website published a note highlighting the dominance shown by the team during the season.
Santa Clara “went 15 games in a row without losing, the best series in the season, matched only by Marítimo.”
Their defense conceded only 19 goals, so Santa Clara had “the best defense in the league and the best in the 1st and 2nd Leagues of the top-7 countries in the UEFA rankings, overtaking Inter Milan, who conceded one more goal than the Reds.”
From the outset, they took the lead in the competition. They were in first place for 24 weeks and broke the club record for points, 73, six more than the previous mark.
In conclusion, the site pointed out that “in addition to these numbers that show the dominance of Vasco Matos' team, Santa Clara also broke a record never seen before in the Liga Portugal SABSEG. They were the only team not to lose a single away game in Portugal this season, something that had also never happened in the history of the competition.”
Santa Clara wants to stay in First Division for many seasons
Many teams find it very difficult to survive in the top tier of Portuguese soccer after they are promoted. But Pacheco believes that Santa Clara is properly prepared to be able to remain among the elite in Portuguese soccer for many years to come.
“These days, one cannot win in professional soccer, at the highest level, without having a competent structure, people who are truly knowledgeable about the phenomenon of soccer,” explained Pacheco.
He then stressed that what made the future bright for his club was “the arrival of a new shareholder in the SAD (Bruno Vicintin) and the relationship we have with the SAD is a very good relationship indeed.”
The financial support from new investors made it possible to “create what is fundamental in modern soccer”, an Under-23 team.
“Today, it is impossible for a team that is in the first division to survive without a U-23 team, like we have, where we can channel youngsters from all over the world, 16, 17, year olds,” explained Pacheco. “Earlier today, we signed contracts with some youngsters, not only from other Azorean islands, but also from all over the world, because it is now possible to place these kids in competitive settings, and that is fundamental so that the first team can aspire to have some of them move up... of all the kids who play soccer, only 3.4 percent make it to the top level of soccer.”
Training center is being built
In addition to this base, which is essential, Santa Clara is building their long-sought training center.
“We will provide the club with the conditions needed for our kids to evolve, in the best conditions, with the best coaches, the best gyms. That's key,” Pacheco said. “In the past, Santa Clara didn’t have that. We can have it now because of a very large investment, and we are talking about a very large investment, and that was only possible because we had an investor who entered the structure of our SAD and who has also helped us with the know-how, which is fundamental.”
These are the factors that lead Pacheco to believe that Santa Clara will be able to stay in First Division.
“We are going to the Primeira Liga, but we are going to the Primeira Liga to stay there, God willing, for many years,” he said.
In recent years, several clubs in Portugal have fallen victim to false narratives from foreign investors. There are documented cases where investors arrive, promise the world and endless funds, but then fail to deliver, disappear, and leave the clubs in ruins. Fortunately for the club from Saint Michael, the group led by Bruno Vicintin is fair and transparent.
“Santa Clara’s majority investor did not come to Santa Clara to make money,” explained Pacheco. “He came because of his passion for soccer. Certainly, he also came to create a structure that will one day be able to repay the investment of millions of euros that is being made. In professional soccer, going back and forward, up and then down in divisions is complicated. When a project is created with a solid foundation, it becomes viable. There is an investment that is underway, at the moment it is not a profitable investment, but I have no doubt that if we are lucky, and we certainly will be, to, in the coming years, find several youngsters with enormous talent, I have no doubt that the investor will also recover the investment he made and Santa Clara will always continue to be at the forefront. But for that you need a base, and we are working on that foundation every day.”
Among the encouraging prospects for the future is the proposal for the centralization of television sports rights, mandated by the Portuguese government, which is currently being negotiated by the Portuguese League.
“A very large financial package that will be distributed among the various SADs,” confirmed Pacheco. “There are only two ways to make money in soccer. One is indeed the television rights and advertising, but the number one way is to be able to develop talents, as their rights can be transferred and then, yes, you get some money.”
In addition to the so-called ‘big three’ in Portugal, Benfica, Sporting and Futebol Clube do Porto, who annually generate revenues of tens of millions of euros from the sale of players, there are other smaller clubs in Portugal, the likes of CF Famalicão, who can serve as an example for Santa Clara can become in the near future.
“We have some examples where, from one moment to the next, if you are lucky enough to develop one or two youngsters with enormous talent, who can then be sold for very large sums, this investment becomes profitable,” explained Pacheco. “It's not easy, it's not something that is done overnight... we at Santa Clara have dozens and dozens of youngsters, as we have brought in some young talent at the national level, and even kids here in the Azores who are growing immensely. But if all of a sudden one of these youngsters becomes a truly valuable asset, we're sure to get a high return as well.”
All clubs in Portugal are forced to sell players in order to balance the books “and Santa Clara will not be different, we will have to do it. Fortunately, we don't have to do it right away because we have some financial solidness.”
“In our under-23 team, where we had a very strong season (finished second in their group, only 6 points behind Sporting de Braga, who are in the final, against Famalicão), very interesting year, there are kids who, I have no doubt, at least some of them, can be part of next year’s squad. This is what allows us to move forward,” added Pacheco.
“Santa Clara, at the moment, doesn't need to be aligned to any of the big clubs in Portugal so they can to provide us with players, Santa Clara is looking for their own players. We have our scouting department, which is quite strong, several people working daily, watching games every day, following young athletes all over the world, to try to bring in great players, in the future, because there is no other way to make this investment profitable,” he said.
Another important source of revenue is ticket sales. In the Santa Clara games that are broadcast on television, one of the stands, basically more than half of the stadium, is always empty. But Ricardo explained that this does not mean a lack of support from the fans.
The average attendance at Estádio de São Miguel is much higher than at most national stadiums, as we have had an average of 2,500, 3,000 fans,” said Pacheco. “The problem we have is that the games are filmed from the side where the fans are sitting. If they were filmed from the other side, people at home would have a completely different idea. In terms of attendance, honestly, I think we are even a little above what is normal at many national stadiums. There is a clear passion for Santa Clara, we feel a growing passion and people identify more and more with the Azores.”
Santa Clara's return to the First Division is an obvious cause for celebration. But Pacheco stressed that his club is being structured to be able to have an increasingly exciting future. With the creation of the new training center and the financial support from the SAD, the needed pieces for a successful project, not only in the short term, but essentially in the long run, are all in place now.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Santa Clara's president talks about promotion to I Liga, club's goals
