Rui Costa: "We are proud of these 14 years of BTV"

STATEMENTS TO BTV

December 10th, 2022. On the date when BTV celebrates 14 years of existence, the President of Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Rui Costa, spoke to the Club channel.

"We must feel proud of our channel, for creating it, and think that more and more we have to be better and make more content that brings our fans closer to the channel, which is a vehicle, an essential pillar for this", stressed Rui Costa.

Taking advantage of the moment, when the winter transfer market is already at the doorstep, the President talked about professional football, dismissed speculation and stated a certainty to the Benfica fans: "We have a single goal, which is to have a winning season, and, as such, what I can guarantee is that in January no player who is currently fundamental to the squad will leave."

What do these 14 years of BTV represent, and what ambitions are left for the future?

First, my congratulations to our BTV for the 14 years. To thank all the employees that throughout these years have worked and dedicated themselves to this project, which Benfica had the audacity to create, being once again a pioneer with its own channel and continuing to be today the only club in the world that broadcasts its home matches. We must feel proud of our channel, for creating it, and think that more and more we have to be better and make more content that brings our fans closer to the channel, which is a vehicle, an essential pillar for this. Our fans started to be able to watch our youth teams, our indoor sports, with a panoply of games that we can broadcast on weekends, connecting, therefore, the Club to our fans, because that is the main foundation of this channel. We are proud of these 14 years, and we wish the future to be even better, and we will work for that, each time with more content that brings the Club closer to the fans, and vice-versa. These 14 years have passed in a flash and give us the expectation that we have many more years to serve the Club in this area as well.

Thinking about the fans and to put Benfiquistas at ease: the January market is approaching, what message do you want to leave?

The channel is also for that, not only for the sporting part; it serves as information from the Club to the fans. In the month of December and in the month of January there will be no talk of anything else but the market, and we are happy that our players are spoken so highly of and that there are so many suitors... What I promise and assure our supporters is what I did at the beginning of the year: this is a sporting project, not a financial project. Fortunately, we don't have any financial problems at the moment, and we don't need to sell players to cope with anything financially. We will try to make adjustments that can benefit the squad, we have a single goal, which is to have a winning season, and, as such, what I can guarantee is that in January no player who is currently fundamental to the squad will leave.