France Bleu Gironde: What is Gérard Lopez’s image at Boavista?
Matthew Monteiro de Golaco : In Portugal, the clubs are sports limited companies and when Gérard Lopez arrived at Boavista he bought the majority of this SAS, the rest is therefore up to the socios who are the shareholders of the club. For two years, since Gérard Lopez arrived in the summer of 2020, the relationship has not been extraordinary. Boavista supporters are not happy to have a majority shareholder who can make decisions for them and there have been cases that have been misinterpreted. In addition to the sporting results which were very difficult the first season with a maintenance which was obtained on the last day as in Lille during the first year of Gérard Lopez and a second season this year which ended better. We have the feeling of having a slightly more Portuguese organization and organization chart in decision-making, with coach Petit who arrived during last season and who is starting to take matters into his own hands in the restructuring of the club, both at the level of its technical staff and at the level of the recruitment and performance unit.
If taking office and the relationship was very complicated the first year, do you seem to describe that things are going a little better in the second season?
Boavista finished 12ᵉ this season, a season that is better than last year when the club barely held on, the club reached the semi-finals of the Coupe de la Ligue which created a lot of emotions and it hadn’t happened often since his comeback in 2014. The second season went a little better at the level of the athlete. There are players who have performed, like Peter Musa who has just signed for Benfica, which has been good for the club’s finances. The performances were consistent and even of very good quality and the maintenance was acquired very quickly, and finally the small coach who arrived, who is nevertheless a legend of the club, a very great player of the Boavista champion in 2001 and vice -champion in 2002. So he’s someone who has somewhat eased the tensions around the club over this last season.
We heard about us in Bordeaux from Boavista for recruitment difficulties following €200,000 which would not have been paid to Adil Rami. Are Boavista’s finances today, what you know of them, is it rather healthy or is it complicated?
Today, for Adil Rami it’s settled. This last week, as the Portuguese championship is over, the licenses to participate in the championship are validated or refused, that of Boavista was accepted a few days ago, a few weeks now. So at this level, there is no problem. Boavista has already recruited, a transfer window which started very early and which even surprised the supporters a little with three players who have already arrived. So it’s also part of this tension that is easing around the club, which can recruit and look forward to next season with a little more serenity.
To conclude, Mathieu Monteiro, can we say from Gérard Lopez to Boavista, started badly but is progressing.
We can say it like that, even if mistrust is still very present at club level. There was in particular this story with Adil Rami which could have triggered a possible ban on recruitment which will not ultimately take place. In the winter of 2021, Boavista had failed to sign a second division player for such financial problems and therefore it created great concern among Boavista supporters. They also see very well what is happening in Bordeaux and especially perhaps what happened in Mouscron. So we’re not going to talk about a starry sky at Boavista. The mistrust is still there, but it’s true that the sporting results and having a coach who means a lot to the fans has calmed things down a bit over the past few months.