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| Monday, 29 November 2010 20:51 |
What will become of Academica?Coimbra club with squad issues to deal with Academica are having one of their best seasons that anyone can remember, but the club is faced with a bit of a conundrum as the organization try to figure out how they can sustain their modest success for the next few years.
As many might have suspected, this article will not deal with a burdening issue that is plaguing the sport in Portugal – money (at least not directly). Albeit, all things do centre on this one necessary evil, but Academica are not a club that has made the headlines due to the fact that they are trying to scrape as many pennies from as many resources as they can to allow them to continue functioning. Academica are coming to terms with the fact that they have finally assembled a decent squad and led by one of the country’s more talented and promising coaches in Jorge Costa. The club can boast of having helped nurture other bright and up & coming managers such as Andre Villas-Boas and Domingos Paciencia, but despite doing their homework in terms of coaches, Academica are faced with the problem that every club their size face – how to keep hold of their (best) players? Right off the bat, Miguel Fidalgo stands out as the team’s star as the 28-year-old has already scored 7 goals thus far, in all competitions. News has sprung that the player and club are currently locked in negotiations as Fidalgo has only signed a one-year deal in the summer. Fantastic, right? Perhaps not. Fidalgo may ask for a pay increase during these negotiations, due to his current exploits for the Estudantes, which may prohibit the club from retaining his services, and at 28 years old, Fidalgo may try to get the best contract he can wherever that may be. The flipside of that argument is that perhaps Academica do have the money that won’t break their pay scale and be able to hold onto their stud of a forward because of his recent contributions. Ok, so then it’s settled - not so. Reason being is that 14 out of Academica’s 27-man squad are in the final year of their contracts, four of which are loaned from other clubs: Addy (FC Porto), Diogo Valente (Sporting Braga) and Paraiba & Laionel (Anapolina). Where does Academica come up with the money to re-sign or fill up 14 spots in their squad - players such as Nuno Coelho, Pedro Costa, Pedrinho and Helder Cabral? Oh, did I forget Sougou? The Senegal-born player has attracted as much interest from clubs domestically, as he has abroad, and is another player free to sign a pre-contract with any club come January. Did I mention that he’s applying for Portuguese citizenship – another attractive factor for the big clubs in Portugal. Academica do have decisions to make and will have to be extremely creative during these next few months as the wrong decision(s) could see the team soon languishing in the lower echelons of the table. by Marco Pereira |
But that's true, it is also a question of mentality. Even in newspaper/tv etc. there is no clubistic plurarity. It is always the same clubs (or club). This do not help the situation on portuguese football attendancy.
At least there are some clubs well supported, apart of big 3, like Guimaraes, a bit more recently Braga (although they could have more people, 15.000 against Arsenal on CL is nothing), Belenenses, Boavista (in 2b division), Salgueiros (4 division and still media of 4000 people per game). On the other hand, it is sad to see that Setubal and Academica are losing some support.
Braga, one of the best teams in Portugal, only averages around 10-15,000 a game when they should be getting at least 20,000. Coimbra has over 400,000 people counting neighboring towns, yet they continuously get rediculously low amounts of supporters.
Teams like Academica, Setubal, and Maritimo(when their stadium is finished) should be able to attract 20,000 supporters, but almost everyone in Portugal supports one of the big 3. Look at Beira mar vs Benfica yesterday, everyone in the stadium was a Benfiquista, I wonder how the Beira Mar fans must have felt!
It is just sad to see 2nd and 3rd division clubs in England with full houses and almost every team in Portugal plays in empty stadiums.
Coimbra is a beautiful city and if I was born there I would totally support them (actually i kinda do, their my second favorite team, my big bro was born there).
When I was in coimbra i was amazed how nobody cared for their team.(like every other city) They have a great stadium and city.
Portuguese football will never grow if we just stick with 3 big teams and the rest are rubbish, hopefully teams like Braga, Guimaraes and Acedemica can improve to give the league a bit more depth and therefore attract better players.(by the way does anybody know were I could get a Academica jersey online?)