Luís Filipe Vieira

Luís Filipe Vieira
Born	(1949-06-22) 22 June 1949 Lisbon, Portugal
Nationality	Portuguese
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	President of S.L. Benfica
Spouse(s)	Vanda Vieira
Children	Tiago Vieira Sara Vieira

Luís Filipe Vieira Ferreira (born 22 June 1949 in Lisbon) is a Portuguese real estate businessman who is currently the chairman of Sport Lisboa e Benfica.^[1]

Chairmanship of Alverca

Luís Filipe Vieira began he career as the President of Futebol Clube de Alverca for a couple of years, at a time when the Angolan player Pedro Mantorras was a rising young star at the Alverca side, and Alverca an affiliated satellite football club for parent club Sport Lisboa e Benfica. Later he was transferred to Benfica for a total of € 7 million.^[2][3]

Chairmanship of Benfica

On 3 November 2003, Vieira was elected by Benfica's associate members the 33rd President ^[4][5] of the club defeating Jaime Antunes and Guerra Madaleno, succeeding Manuel Vilarinho. He was committed to bring Benfica back to its European glory. In the first months in charge, Vieira saw the club win its first trophy in eight years, after a triumph at the 2003-04 Taça de Portugal.

In the 2004–05 football season, the club won the SuperLiga, with the Italian Giovanni Trapattoni as manager. In the 2005–06 season, he hired Ronald Koeman, a Dutch international and former AFC Ajax coach, as manager. He guided Benfica to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, knocking out the defending champions Liverpool. Under his management, Benfica reached over 160,000 associate members in 2006, and was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the largest sports club in the world by number of registered paying associates.^[6]

In 2006 he was reelected for a second term with 95,6% win, in which he ran uncontested.^[7]

The Benfica cycling team was briefly reactivated, women's triathlon star Vanessa Fernandes signed with the club. For the 2006–07 season, Vieira hired Portuguese manager Fernando Santos as the new coach for the football team. The team also signed veteran footballer Rui Costa, who wished to back at his beloved club Benfica after a long stint in the Italian Serie A.

During his term as chairman of Benfica, in May 2007, the Benfica - Futebol, S.A.D. (the professional football department sports company) was listed on the Portuguese stock exchange Euronext Lisbon. Vieira and former Benfica chairman Manuel Vilarinho have large shares of the Benfica's stock, and are among the largest shareholders of the sports publicly held company.

On 3 July 2009, a total number of 20,672 votes were cast in the presidential elections and Vieira was re-elected with 91.74% of the votes, defeating Bruno Carvalho which got 2,98%.^[8] Before winning the elections, Vieira promised a more winning term. In his previous one, Benfica never achieved better than a 3rd place and a League Cup.^[9] In his third term, he won the championship in the first year, plus another League cup,^[10] but in the following two, the team only managed to retain the League Cup, coming second place in the two years.

On 28 September 2012, Luis Filipe Vieira became the second president to have the year's accounts flunked in members voting, after Manuel Damásio in 1997. The club presented €11 million loss, despite heavy earnings in the Champions League and through sales of players like Fábio Coentrão and Roberto.^{[11][12][13][14]} He was asked to resign by the members.^[15]

On 13 October 2012, Vieira ran for a fourth term, which would make him the longest running president ever in the history of Benfica, surpassing Bento Mantua (1917-1926).^[16][17] He announced, he intented to win 3 championship's, achieve 1 Champions League final, and win 50 titles in the amauter sports. He also promised to transmit Benfica games on Benfica TV, the club's own TV channel.^[1][18]

On 26 October 2012,^[19] Luís Filipe Vieira was re-elected with 83,02% of the votes defeating Rui Rangel who got only 13,83%.^[20][21]

On 7 December 2012, Luís Filipe Vieira surpassed Bento Mântua as the president with more days in charge in Benfica's history.^[22]

Honours in Benfica

References