Pinto da Costa faces opposition in elections for the fourth time in 42 years

Pinto da Costa faces opposition for the fourth time in 42 years as FC Porto president on Saturday when he competes in the election for second place in national football with Andre Villas-Boas and Nuno Lobo after 15 straight victories.

Succeeded by Américo de Sá since 17 April 1982, 33rd longest leader in the club’s history, 86 years old, achieved 12 victories as sole candidate, defeated Dr. José Martins Soares twice in a row, in 1988 and 1991, and ousted lawyer José Fernando Rio . and businessman and professor Nuno Lobo in 2020, the voting lasted two days.

Pinto da Costa won four years ago with 5,247 votes (68.65%), against 2,071 for Rio (26.44%) and 384 for Lobo (4.91%), the lowest percentage of the 15 successes received for during his “reign” the most massive elections of FC Porto in the 21st century.

Despite the current health restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were 8,480 members in the Dragao Arena pavilion, below the record set in 1988 when 10,731 people signed the Blaugrana president’s first victory over Martins Soares.

Pinto da Costa’s only election rival for 38 years, the doctor failed to secure more than 535 votes (5%) and was a long way from the 10,196 leader with the most titles and longevity in world football (95%), losing by a slightly smaller margin three years later .

Turnout “fell” to just over half the current 1991 record, and Martins Soares received the preference of 1,164 members (18%) compared to the 4,614 votes (82%) garnered by Pinto da Costa, who, having no opponents, had several close victories to 100%.

While the official results of most electoral events that occurred in the 1980s and some in the 1990s are unknown, the Lusa news archive shows this pattern of unanimity in 1994 (99.19%, with 1470 of 1482 votes cast) . ), 1998 (99.81%, with 2072 out of 2076), 2001 (98.83%, with 1016 out of 1028), 2004 (99.25%, with 1060 out of 1068), 2007 (98.43%, with 3769 out of 3829), 2010 (98%, in a ballot in which the “dragons” did not indicate the number of voters) and 2013 (99.13% with 1258 out of 1269).

This trend has continued since 1982, when 4,573 members (91.02%) elected Pinto da Costa to succeed Américo de Sa, with a total of 5,024 votes, a few days after banker Afonso Pinto de Magalhães, leader of FC Porto in 1967, in 1972, he withdrew his candidacy, leaving only a list for the Supreme Council, which was defeated.

The Dragons rebounded over the next four decades by winning 2,586 trophies in 21 sports (68 of which in men’s senior football), but criticism of current sporting, economic and infrastructural management has intensified in recent years.

A sign of this was the 2016 elections, the last held in isolation, in which Pinto da Costa received 79% of the vote from a total of 2,403 voters, with 21% of invalid ballots.

Four years later, this result will fall by more than 10 percentage points, influenced by a tripartite context that repeats from 09:00 to 20:00 on Saturday at the Dragao stadium in Porto, supporting the two protagonists and uniting the main face of the opposition.

Winner of four trophies for the Blaugrana football team in the 2010/11 season, including the championship and the Europa League, former coach Andre Villas-Boas (list B) will compete for the first time at the leadership of the club and take on the unprecedented challenge of Pinto da Costa (A), who is supported by two of the three election opponents he faces until 2024.

José Fernando Rio publicly announced this position at the beginning of April, and José Martins Soares is the seventh name indicated by the president of FC Porto to the High Council, an advisory body that already participated in 2020 as Nuno Lobo’s first candidate (List C).