Lisbon – AFP
Benfica members have selected former international star Rui Costa as the club’s new president following the arrest of Luis Felipe Vieira in July.
On Saturday, Costa, 49, won a comfortable four-year term with 84.48 percent of the vote, just 12.24 percent over his rival, Francisco Benitez.
The club had more than 40,000 members cast ballots, a record number.
He took over as president of the Costa Club, where the capital’s son, Lisbon, began his football career with age groups in 1977 and with the first team in 1990, and passed Fiorentina in 2008. (1994-2001) and Milan (2001-2006) Italians.
The former international, who defended the colors of Portugal in 94 matches, was vice-president and temporarily accepted the presidency when Veera resigned after being arrested and placed under house arrest.
Vieira was arrested after the Portuguese public prosecutor began an investigation into possible “breach of trust, fraud, forgery, tax fraud and money laundering.”
Vieira, 72, was president of the club for 18 years during the record period. Under his leadership, the team won seven titles in the Portuguese league and recovered from financial problems caused by previous scandals.
Benfica finished third in the Portuguese league last season, so could not win any titles for the second season in a row.