Belenenses will have one of the lowest budgets in League Two next season.

Belenenses will have one of the lowest budgets in Football League Two next season due to the financial requirements that must be met to license the stadium, according to President Patrick Morais de Carvalho.

“We are moving into a league where Belenenses will be heavily fined from the start as the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP) requires us to spend over €500,000 just to license the Restelo stadium. We sentence Belenenses to the match. we will have a very modest budget, most likely the lowest in Ligue II,” said the manager of the Lisbon club to Luce, who recalled recent events.

The lighting system of the Restelo stadium requires intervention to participate in the II Liga, although in recent years this stadium has hosted several matches of the Belenenses-Sporting national team for the Portuguese Cup, as well as several concerts.

“I think this calls into question the truth of the sport and the fairness of the competition. These are additional difficulties, and we will have to go to the II league with a very cut budget. More. There will be many difficulties, and the partners will have to prepare. for it,” he said.

This time, Belenenses, with a budget of “about 650,000 euros”, achieved promotion to the II League against rivals “who had a budget three times larger”, and now the club has to overcome all these financial difficulties “with its own means”.

“This has to be related to the income that exists from access to the II League, such as television rights, the cost of betting, some of our sponsors, the prizes we expect to win, season tickets, so that participants pay dues. on time, box office … But all this together will surely give the lowest budget in the entire II League, ”he stressed.

Thus, Patrick Morais de Carvalho does not believe that Belenenses will be able to play a sixth promotion in a row in their first season in the II Liga and return to the elite of Portuguese football, since the club “has to spend 500 thousand euros on light bulbs.”

The rise to the professional championships is the “icing on the cake” of the nine years of the presidency of Patrick Morais de Carvalho, who does not intend to run again in the club elections scheduled for June 24, leaving “very well on his conscience”. “.

“I understand that my mission at Belenenses ends on May 20, the Ligue 3 final. Month. To date, I don’t know if this is possible,” said the leader, who has been in office since October 2014.

Patrick Morais de Carvalho singled out nine years “with many personal losses and without earning a penny, completely voluntarily and amateurishly, out of love for the club and respect for the fantastic associative mass of Belenenses”, who always supported and believed in ideas.

“If I understand that the conditions are met from a budgetary point of view, albeit with the lowest budget of the II League, so that we can fulfill the obligations that we will have to sign, I will change my mind. Otherwise, I will not be a candidate and I understand that my mission is completed on the 20th. I don’t think anyone can demand anything more from me, because I gave nine years of my life, along with some colleagues for management – and initially there are only two, because it is very difficult,” said the leader of Belenenses.

Before the election, an extraordinary general meeting will be held to discuss with partners participation in professional competitions and the need to create a new sports company after the split with the former SAD – BSAD II league.

“Since the formation of a company remains mandatory from a legal point of view, I will advocate that Belenenses create SDUQ (Sociedade Desportiva Unipessoal por Quotas), 100% owned by Belenenses, but without prejudice to the possibility of subsequently becoming a SAD, if we understand it that way,” explained Patrick Morais de Carvalho.

Belenenses and União de Leiria, two teams that have confirmed their ascension to the II Liga at the top of the two ascending phase series, will discuss the Liga 3 champion trophy on May 20, at 16:15, in the “mythical National Stadium in Oeiras.