Tottenham must follow Benfica
blueprint to realise full potential
Light fantastic: Spurs train at Benfica’s impressive stadium — a similar venue is needed for the club to realise their potential
Tom Collomosse
Updated: 17:24, 20 March 2014
When Tottenham officials take their seats in the 65,000-capacity Stadium of Light tonight, they will doubtless notice the contrast between their own club’s situation and that of Benfica.
A severe injury list has forced head coach Tim Sherwood to bring eight players on this trip who have never made a first-team appearance for Spurs, while Benfica promise to be as powerful as at White Hart Lane last week. There, they established a 3-1 first-leg lead that should send them through to the Europa League quarter-finals.
It is off the pitch, though, where the clearest differences lie for those who make the key decisions at Tottenham. For the last seven years, Spurs have been trying to put together the financial package that will deliver a new stadium. Here, in Lisbon, they see many of the things they crave.
Benfica have an imposing, modern home, which opened in October 2003, but has retained its magic by keeping its name — Estadio Da Luz, the Stadium of Light, one of the most evocative in the history of European football.
The club have spent nine full seasons in the new venue and, in May, it will host the Champions League Final.
Inside the complex of the new ground — which Benfica own — there is a museum, a vast megastore and various other outlets, all of which help to boost the bank balance of the Portuguese league leaders.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, who takes a leading role in the club’s transfer dealings, cannot fail to admire the Benfica model in this area, either. In recent years David Luiz, Ramires, Fabio Coentrao, Angel Di Maria, Javi Garcia and Axel Witsel have left the club for a combined transfer total of around £140million and a profit of more than £125m.
In January, Nemanja Matic returned to Chelsea for £21m — a profit of about £18m for Benfica.
In the summer, centre-back Ezequiel Garay and attacker Lazar Markovic are sure to attract attention.
The frustration for Tottenham is that, if they can somehow reach the financial and naming-rights agreements necessary for a new, £400m stadium, there is so much potential to realise.
Benfica’s average league attendance last season was about 42,000; Spurs would expect to fill a 56,000-capacity arena for every home game.
“The club are making steps to be able to move into a new ground,” Sherwood said. “Our neighbours [Arsenal] have done it and it enables you to finance the buying of players.
“Not only that, we have a massive fan base at Tottenham. We have a huge waiting list for season tickets and I’m sure a lot of those people can’t wait for the new stadium to be built, so they can all watch the team play week in, week out.”
Although Benfica are virtually guaranteed Champions League football every season because their domestic competition is relatively weak, their dominance is double-edged.
Few of the world’s best players aspire to play in Portuguese domestic football at the peak of their careers.
In 2012-13, Porto received £11m in television money as they won the domestic title.
Manchester United, the champions of England, received £60.8m. Even Queens Park Rangers, who finished bottom of the Premier League last season, still earned £39.8m.
Levy has been attacked by supporters, particularly in recent weeks, for making the bottom line a priority above a clear strategy on the field.
While some of these criticisms are valid, Levy is working tirelessly behind the scenes to try to deliver a new stadium, in a financial climate that has been extremely difficult during the last six years. There is optimism at the club that a breakthrough is close. If he were able to report genuine progress at the end of the campaign, for example, it would placate many of those fans who have become disillusioned with the club.
Levy rarely speaks in public but when he does, the language he uses is instructive. He has mentioned before a desire to “solve the stadium”, a curious turn of phrase but one that reveals much about how Levy sees the matter.
Sort out the new ground, the thinking goes, and Spurs will be in a far better position to become regular Champions League qualifiers, attract better players and — crucially — become a very enticing option for potential investors.
Benfica are a useful example for Spurs. Neither club has the cachet of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich but they are important, well-supported institutions in their respective capital cities.
Benfica’s business strategy means they are solid, regular competitors in European football, they have a squad of talented young players who will make them money, and they play in a magnificent, state-of-the-art arena.
Spurs can, and should, be optimistic about reaching a similar level in the years to come.
http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...eprint-to-realise-full-potential-9205271.html
Whilst Benfica are in a lesser league than ours it does show you it can work. Porto to them and Sporting Lisbon over the past 25-30 years have been what Chelsea are to us and Arsenal, so they are up against it despite being the biggest club in the country. Our model isn't perfect but I'd rather do what we're doing than take a Leeds utd style gamble.
