April 29 – André Villas-Boas has been elected the new chairman of FC Porto with a landslide victory, bringing to an end the 42-year reign of Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa.
Villas-Boas dethroned his rival, who had held the club in an iron fist, claiming 80.3% of the vote to win the presidency. “Porto is free again,” he triumphantly claimed.
“I hope to correspond fully to the demands of all Portistas: to win, to lift trophies and to build a sustainable club for the future,” said Villas-Boas. “We have a long mission ahead of us. It will take arduous work in a house that has to be restructured, sorted out and reorganised.”
His victory marks Villas-Boas’s transition from the field to the board room and a return to the club where he won a league, cup and Europa League treble as manager in 2011. He was formerly the manager of Chelsea and Tottenham. The Portuguese also had spells at Zenit St Petersburg and Shanghai before his last role at Marseille in 2021.
Pinto da Costa had become unpopular at the Estadio do Dragao after his chaotic management over the last decade. Earlier this season, Porto were eliminated from the Champions League in the round of 16 by Arsenal and they may not clinch a ticket for next season’s edition.
“It is a time of transition, of change. The members are the ones in charge of the club, they wanted it that way, now we have to prepare for the future,” said Vitor Baia from Pinto da Costa’s camp.
“Calling for unity, it is the end of the incredible legacy of the most important person in the history of FC Porto, whom we must praise because the level of excellence he put into this club was incredible. We must be eternally grateful for his work.”
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