MU qualified for 10th time in 13 season at the quarterfinals of CL.
MU won it 2 times and another 2-3 times reached the semis.
Maybe they should "relegate" to UEFA cup and win a few trophies more.
In the last 25 years, Porto won the European Cup/Champions League 2 times, plus one UEFA Cup, an European SuperCup and 2 Intercontinental Cups.
Porto are the record-holder in Champions League appearances, with 14 of them. This is the 6th qualification for the quarter-finals, MU has this on us. Still, a pretty comparable record, considering we advanced from the group stage 4 more times.
Now, if one factors the money each team spends, it's not even a contest - like it's a non-contest when you compare Porto with teams with similar resources, teams like Anderlecht, Feyenoord, Besiktas, Olympiakos, etc. If only we weren't forced to build a new team almost every year and see our best players leaving to teams that have astronomical debts like MU...
Well, to be fair, the competition in the SuperLiga was never on the level of the Premier League. There´s Sporting, Benfica and Porto, and that´s it. Sporting and Benfica had huge financial problems in the 90ies, so the competition was even weaker. I remember when the whole Porto offense was "Cross to Jardel and get the heck out of the way". It´s still a great accomplishment, but the comparison with ManU is not 100% correct.
Porto´s management is on a level with Olympique Lyon or Bayern Munich (fiscally responsible and succesful), imo, but the weak SuperLiga definitly made things easier for them.
If only the UEFA would install a strict europe-wide licensing system, these teams would finally get the success and recognition they deserve.
That's a huge misconception, IMO.
1 - Porto is nowhere near close Lyon or Bayern from a financial standpoint. Olympique revenues are like 4 or 5 times bigger than Porto's. The salaries of 3 or 4 Munich players would be enough to pay our entire roster. And Lyon, in spite of being a quite successful team, with an outstanding domestic record, has never won anything significant on European terms - they always fall short to more powerful teams. But they have enough money to keep players like Juninho or Benzema - Porto would never be able to keep them for so long. So, in terms of competence and return for €, we are far ahead those clubs.
2 - Playing in the Superliga is obviously our biggest disadvantage. Portugal is a small, relatively poor country, so the TV revenues are very insignificant (aprox. €7 million last season). Ditto for sponsoring, but the big difference is in terms of revenue: any Premier League club, even, say, Hull City, makes more money than Porto due to that reason.
Again, Porto should be compared are decent sized clubs from small countries, like Standard Liege, Basel, Kiev, Sparta Praga, etc (or the Greek ones, but those are generally owned by billionaires who inject liquidity and money). We don't even come close, financially, from clubs like Bayern or Lyon. For example, we almost signed Carlos Eduardo a couple of years ago, but even Hoffenheim easily outbid us. Middle-of-the-table clubs from La Liga routinely pay better salaries than we can.
Btw, Benfica has a huge fanbase, the only reason we can overspend them now and then is because we are more successful in terms of international competitions and especially selling players to the the top European clubs (because we're better picking and developing them).
Uh oh, sorry that I didn´t answer your post earlier, I just saw it.
Bayern was basically bankrupt 20 years ago, and unlike Real Madrid, they had to dig them out of their hole by themselves. And german top teams don´t get nearly as much money from TV than english, spanish or italian teams.
They´re a) not allowed to negotiate their own contracts for international matches, b) don´t get nearly as much money from their national TV when compared to the other european top leagues and c) have to put their TV money in a pool from which all 36 teams of the first and second division benefit. I´m certainly not a Bayern fan, but they´re very similar, the difference is that Bayern is 20 years ahead of Porto.
Olympique sold players like Essien to keep guys like Juninho or Benzema, they´ve earned the money to keep these players.
ManU, on the other hand, just sold millions of pakistan-produced Beckham jerseys to asian teenagers (I kid, I kid).
My point is, in the Superliga, it`s easier to go the route of development than it is in the Premier League. Porto can afford to buy a guy like Hulk from out of nowhere and develop him. What if ManU buys him and he doesn`t work out? They would get a lot of criticism from their fans, and rightly so. If you have the money, it`s just a matter of time until your fans (and more importantly, the media) ask for bigger signings.
Topic: Champions League 2008-09 Thread (Read 104029 times)