A fish rots from the head down: The rapid decline of BoavistaShareSince its establishment in 1934, Liga Portugal has been dominated by Benfica, Porto, and Sporting. Only two teams outside of ‘Os Três Grandes’ have won the league title: Belenenses in 1945/46 and Boavista in 2000/01. And yet, 24 years after that historic championship, Boavista find themselves on the brink of disappearance.By Zach LowyFounded in 1903, Boavista spent its first seven decades drifting between Portugal’s top division and second tier. This changed in 1974 with the arrival of President Valentim Loureiro, who oversaw five Taça de Portugal titles and a second-place finish. He departed in 1997, with his son João stepping into the fray. Boavista continued their upward momentum by finishing second in 1999 and fourth in 2000, before shocking the world by winning the title. For the first time, Boavista were no longer a parochial side gravitating around their all-conquering crosstown rivals Porto; they were the kings of Portugal.Their reign was short-lived, with key figures like Ricardo, José Bosingwa and Raúl Meireles heading to Portugal’s Big Three. Boavista finished as runners-up before regressing to 10th in 2002/03 – a season which also saw Boavista come within inches of reaching the UEFA Cup Final. Two decades later, they still haven’t returned to European football.In order to keep competing with Os Três Grandes, Boavista invested more and more in the transfer market whilst paying for the expansion of the Estádio da Bessa. When they first commenced their renovation project in 1999, they envisioned a 20,000-capacity arena. That same year, Portugal won the rights to host the 2004 UEFA European Championship, causing Boavista to push for a 30,000-capacity stadium in order to host Euro matches. By the time it opened, the Bessa had cost over €45m, only 15% of which was covered by the government. Fast-forward 21 years, and Boavista are still struggling to erase a pile of debt which has ballooned to over €140m.Whilst Boavista’s stadium improved, their form didn’t; the Panthers finished 10th and 9th in 2006/07 and 2007/08, but the worst was yet to come. In 2008, the Portuguese authorities completed the four-year investigation of the ‘Apito Dourado,’ or Golden Whistle, which implicated Boavista and Porto in a match-fixing scandal. Porto received a six-point deduction and a €150,000 fine, whilst Boavista were relegated to the second tier and fined €180,000 for bribery and referee coercion. In 2009, they dropped to the amateur divisions, where they remained until winning a protracted legal battle. However, they never quite managed to fill their 30,000-seater stadium to the brim: many of their supporters had taken their allegiances elsewhere as soon as Boavista’s golden era came to a screeching halt.Boavista ascended two divisions and returned to the Primeira in 2015, and despite having a squad consisting of third-tier players, they avoided the drop under Petit, who was part of their title-winning squad from 2001. Petit left in November 2015 after three years in charge, with Boavista continuing to hover around the midtable positions before avoiding relegation on the final day of the 2020/21 season. Desperate for a new owner with the ambition and wherewithal to restore them to the upper echelon, Boavisteiros welcomed the arrival of Luxembourgish-Spanish businessman Gerard López in 2021. It seemed the savior they had spent two decades praying for had finally arrived – instead, he ended up being their worst nightmare.López first made inroads in football with Ligue 1 side Lille in 2017; over the next four years, Lille accumulated massive debts and were even threatened with a lawsuit by Meryln Partners, the holding firm that owned the club, after failing to refund the loan that López obtained after purchasing the club. Lille would’ve had to file for bankruptcy had it not been for the arrival of Oliver Létang in 2020, who stated last year, “Lille is a great 80-year-old club, but it should have died at 77.”Shortly before departing Lille, López expanded his sporting empire to Royal Excel Mouscron. Mouscron suffered relegation in his first year in charge, ending a seven-year stay in Belgium’s top-flight. In his second season, Mouscron were denied a professional license due to a debt of €10m, causing them to drop down two divisions and fold in 2022. Just like that, Mouscron’s 100-year history had reached its conclusion.In 2021, López took over Girondins de Bordeaux – who had won their sixth Ligue 1 title just 12 years prior. Bordeaux suffered relegation in López’s first season in charge, ending a 31-year spell in France’s top-tier. They hit rock bottom in 2024 after being administratively relegated to the fourth tier due to their cataclysmic finances, forcing them to relinquish their professional status and terminate the contracts of the entire first-team squad.It has been a similar story at Boavista since López’s arrival. Boavista fell into an early relegation battle, only to be rescued by the goal-scoring heroics of Petar Musa and the mid-season return of Petit as manager, who led them 12th in 2021/22 and 9th in 2022/23. However, it didn’t take long for the cracks to appear – on September 30, 2023, Boavista cancelled their pregame training after the medical workers failed to attend, citing unpaid wages. The following day, the stadium employees refused to open the club’s facilities due to their delayed salaries. In December 2023, Boavista’s first-team squad refused to train after suffering three months of unpaid salaries, whilst Petit also resigned.“When López bought Boavista, he promised to clear all of the club’s debts and inject money so that they could compete for European football within three years, but he failed to deliver,” stated Miguel L. Pereira, the author of ‘Bring Me That Horizon: A Journey to the Soul of Portuguese Football.’ “He didn’t inject any money, the club is still full of debt, and whilst Petit managed to create a competitive backroom culture, he left due to unpaid salaries. The club is in shambles, and they’re on the brink of disappearing altogether.”“In order to participate in Portugal’s professional leagues, you need to have zero social security debt and have your payments from the last three months regularized. When the season begins in August, Boavista pay all of their players and regulate the situation, and then they go three months without paying anyone. This is in contrast to other leagues, who check for paid salaries every couple of months…if that was the case in Portugal, Boavista would’ve been relegated four years ago.”It’s evident these irregular salary payments have taken a toll on their morale: Boavista won five of their first seven matches in 2022/23, before winning seven of their next 27. They won four of their first five matches of 2023/24, before winning three of 29. Boavista went through four different managers over the 2023/24 campaign and escaped the drop by the thinnest of margins, with Miguel Reisinho’s last-second penalty seeing them avoid a trip to the promotion/relegation playoff on goal differential. Once a formidable powerhouse, Boavista are now making headlines for all the wrong reasons: in November, López was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine after using his platform as Lille president to hire Karim Saada, who was acting as a sports agent without a valid license. And in August, Boavista president Vítor Murta was convicted of sexually assaulting his employee between 2019 and 2022 – he was ousted in January after six years in charge.López hasn’t just provoked the indignation of his own personnel, but FIFA, who banned Boavista from signing new players for five consecutive transfer windows. By the end of 2024, Boavista had sustained as many as 39 lawsuits against them, ranging from unpaid salaries to former players to unpaid debts to football clubs from previous transfers. It proved to be all too much for manager Cristiano Bacci, who handed in his resignation on February 8 following a window that saw them fail to sign any new players whilst also selling defensive colossus Bruno Onyemaechi to Olympiakos for €2.5m. Boavista appointed Lito Vidigal, but so far, he hasn’t stopped the bleeding, losing 1-0 to Estrela da Amadora and 3-0 to Benfica.Like a naive high school student who only started working on his homework 30 minutes before it was due, Boavista went about clearing their debts after the January window closed in order for FIFA to lift their transfer ban. They wasted no time in reshaping their squad and signed nine free agents, including Europa League winner Tomáš Vaclík, five-time Ligue 1 champion Layvin Kurzawa, and ex-Chelsea midfielder Marco van Ginkel. However, with 11 matches remaining, it might be too little too late for Boavista. The Axadrezados have lost their last eight games, and they sit rock bottom with 12 points, eight points away from the playoff spot and nine away from automatic safety.It has been 10 years since López’s first sporting acquisition – the British Formula One racing team Lotus F1 – were staring down the threat of administration, only for Renault to purchase the team and repay £2.7m in unpaid taxes. Since then, López has driven Mouscron to extinction and steered Bordeaux to the fourth division, and today, he has led Boavista to the precipice of liquidation.(Cover image from IMAGO)You can follow all the action from the Liga Portugal on FotMob – with in-depth stat coverage including xG, shot maps, and player ratings. Download the free app here.A fish rots from the head down: The rapid decline of BoavistaSince its establishment in 1934, Liga Portugal has been dominated by Benfica, Porto, and Sporting. Only two teams outside of ‘Os Três Grandes’ have won the league title: Belenenses in 1945/46 and Boavista in 2000/01. And yet, 24 years after that historic championship, Boavista find themselves on the brink of disappearance.By Zach LowyFounded in 1903, Boavista spent its first seven decades drifting between Portugal’s top division and second tier. This changed in 1974 with the arrival of President Valentim Loureiro, who oversaw five Taça de Portugal titles and a second-place finish. He departed in 1997, with his son João stepping into the fray. Boavista continued their upward momentum by finishing second in 1999 and fourth in 2000, before shocking the world by winning the title. For the first time, Boavista were no longer a parochial side gravitating around their all-conquering crosstown rivals Porto; they were the kings of Portugal.Their reign was short-lived, with key figures like Ricardo, José Bosingwa and Raúl Meireles heading to Portugal’s Big Three. Boavista finished as runners-up before regressing to 10th in 2002/03 – a season which also saw Boavista come within inches of reaching the UEFA Cup Final. Two decades later, they still haven’t returned to European football.In order to keep competing with Os Três Grandes, Boavista invested more and more in the transfer market whilst paying for the expansion of the Estádio da Bessa. When they first commenced their renovation project in 1999, they envisioned a 20,000-capacity arena. That same year, Portugal won the rights to host the 2004 UEFA European Championship, causing Boavista to push for a 30,000-capacity stadium in order to host Euro matches. By the time it opened, the Bessa had cost over €45m, only 15% of which was covered by the government. Fast-forward 21 years, and Boavista are still struggling to erase a pile of debt which has ballooned to over €140m.Whilst Boavista’s stadium improved, their form didn’t; the Panthers finished 10th and 9th in 2006/07 and 2007/08, but the worst was yet to come. In 2008, the Portuguese authorities completed the four-year investigation of the ‘Apito Dourado,’ or Golden Whistle, which implicated Boavista and Porto in a match-fixing scandal. Porto received a six-point deduction and a €150,000 fine, whilst Boavista were relegated to the second tier and fined €180,000 for bribery and referee coercion. In 2009, they dropped to the amateur divisions, where they remained until winning a protracted legal battle. However, they never quite managed to fill their 30,000-seater stadium to the brim: many of their supporters had taken their allegiances elsewhere as soon as Boavista’s golden era came to a screeching halt.Boavista ascended two divisions and returned to the Primeira in 2015, and despite having a squad consisting of third-tier players, they avoided the drop under Petit, who was part of their title-winning squad from 2001. Petit left in November 2015 after three years in charge, with Boavista continuing to hover around the midtable positions before avoiding relegation on the final day of the 2020/21 season. Desperate for a new owner with the ambition and wherewithal to restore them to the upper echelon, Boavisteiros welcomed the arrival of Luxembourgish-Spanish businessman Gerard López in 2021. It seemed the savior they had spent two decades praying for had finally arrived – instead, he ended up being their worst nightmare.López first made inroads in football with Ligue 1 side Lille in 2017; over the next four years, Lille accumulated massive debts and were even threatened with a lawsuit by Meryln Partners, the holding firm that owned the club, after failing to refund the loan that López obtained after purchasing the club. Lille would’ve had to file for bankruptcy had it not been for the arrival of Oliver Létang in 2020, who stated last year, “Lille is a great 80-year-old club, but it should have died at 77.”Shortly before departing Lille, López expanded his sporting empire to Royal Excel Mouscron. Mouscron suffered relegation in his first year in charge, ending a seven-year stay in Belgium’s top-flight. In his second season, Mouscron were denied a professional license due to a debt of €10m, causing them to drop down two divisions and fold in 2022. Just like that, Mouscron’s 100-year history had reached its conclusion.In 2021, López took over Girondins de Bordeaux – who had won their sixth Ligue 1 title just 12 years prior. Bordeaux suffered relegation in López’s first season in charge, ending a 31-year spell in France’s top-tier. They hit rock bottom in 2024 after being administratively relegated to the fourth tier due to their cataclysmic finances, forcing them to relinquish their professional status and terminate the contracts of the entire first-team squad.It has been a similar story at Boavista since López’s arrival. Boavista fell into an early relegation battle, only to be rescued by the goal-scoring heroics of Petar Musa and the mid-season return of Petit as manager, who led them 12th in 2021/22 and 9th in 2022/23. However, it didn’t take long for the cracks to appear – on September 30, 2023, Boavista cancelled their pregame training after the medical workers failed to attend, citing unpaid wages. The following day, the stadium employees refused to open the club’s facilities due to their delayed salaries. In December 2023, Boavista’s first-team squad refused to train after suffering three months of unpaid salaries, whilst Petit also resigned.“When López bought Boavista, he promised to clear all of the club’s debts and inject money so that they could compete for European football within three years, but he failed to deliver,” stated Miguel L. Pereira, the author of ‘Bring Me That Horizon: A Journey to the Soul of Portuguese Football.’ “He didn’t inject any money, the club is still full of debt, and whilst Petit managed to create a competitive backroom culture, he left due to unpaid salaries. The club is in shambles, and they’re on the brink of disappearing altogether.”“In order to participate in Portugal’s professional leagues, you need to have zero social security debt and have your payments from the last three months regularized. When the season begins in August, Boavista pay all of their players and regulate the situation, and then they go three months without paying anyone. This is in contrast to other leagues, who check for paid salaries every couple of months…if that was the case in Portugal, Boavista would’ve been relegated four years ago.”It’s evident these irregular salary payments have taken a toll on their morale: Boavista won five of their first seven matches in 2022/23, before winning seven of their next 27. They won four of their first five matches of 2023/24, before winning three of 29. Boavista went through four different managers over the 2023/24 campaign and escaped the drop by the thinnest of margins, with Miguel Reisinho’s last-second penalty seeing them avoid a trip to the promotion/relegation playoff on goal differential. Once a formidable powerhouse, Boavista are now making headlines for all the wrong reasons: in November, López was given a 10-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine after using his platform as Lille president to hire Karim Saada, who was acting as a sports agent without a valid license. And in August, Boavista president Vítor Murta was convicted of sexually assaulting his employee between 2019 and 2022 – he was ousted in January after six years in charge.López hasn’t just provoked the indignation of his own personnel, but FIFA, who banned Boavista from signing new players for five consecutive transfer windows. By the end of 2024, Boavista had sustained as many as 39 lawsuits against them, ranging from unpaid salaries to former players to unpaid debts to football clubs from previous transfers. It proved to be all too much for manager Cristiano Bacci, who handed in his resignation on February 8 following a window that saw them fail to sign any new players whilst also selling defensive colossus Bruno Onyemaechi to Olympiakos for €2.5m. Boavista appointed Lito Vidigal, but so far, he hasn’t stopped the bleeding, losing 1-0 to Estrela da Amadora and 3-0 to Benfica.Like a naive high school student who only started working on his homework 30 minutes before it was due, Boavista went about clearing their debts after the January window closed in order for FIFA to lift their transfer ban. They wasted no time in reshaping their squad and signed nine free agents, including Europa League winner Tomáš Vaclík, five-time Ligue 1 champion Layvin Kurzawa, and ex-Chelsea midfielder Marco van Ginkel. However, with 11 matches remaining, it might be too little too late for Boavista. The Axadrezados have lost their last eight games, and they sit rock bottom with 12 points, eight points away from the playoff spot and nine away from automatic safety.It has been 10 years since López’s first sporting acquisition – the British Formula One racing team Lotus F1 – were staring down the threat of administration, only for Renault to purchase the team and repay £2.7m in unpaid taxes. Since then, López has driven Mouscron to extinction and steered Bordeaux to the fourth division, and today, he has led Boavista to the precipice of liquidation.(Cover image from IMAGO)You can follow all the action from the Liga Portugal on FotMob – with in-depth stat coverage including xG, shot maps, and player ratings. Download the free app here.