Sport Montreal e Benfica
Filial #25 of Sport Lisboa e Benfica
| Founding Date: | September 16, 1982 |
A COMMUNITY GEM ADAPTING TO THE TIMES
Audio Version:
In 1982, long before the internet and android boxes, the benfiquistas in Montreal relied on cassette recordings to watch their beloved Sport Lisboa e Benfica. It was during these gatherings that the idea of forming an affiliate of the Portuguese soccer giant in Montreal came together. A group of more than thirty men booked dinner at Pavilhão Espanhol restaurant and, voilá, Sport Montreal e Benfica was founded – September 16, 1982 is the official founding date.
Among this group was Carlos Fernandes. Born in Castelo Branco, he had arrived in Montreal four years earlier to be with the love of his life, whom he had met in Portugal while she was on vacation. They later married and had two daughters. Although he was part of the group that formulated the idea of a Benfica representation in Montreal, he could not be present at that memorable dinner because of other commitments.
In a conversation via telephone in January of 2022, Fernandes started by reminiscing about those early days: “At the time, a TAP pilot used to bring tapes with recorded games. The first was Benfica-Roma. So, we’d go to the Portuguese Association to watch the taped game three or four days after it was played. In those days, we already paid $20. It was here that we started to think about forming Benfica. We had two meetings and then we organized that dinner to form the club. It was held at Pavilhão Espanhol, a restaurant owned by a benfiquista. All the individuals who attended that dinner are considered founding members.”
The organization was officially recognized by the mother club in Portugal and given the distinction of Filial number 25. Crispim Silva was the first president elected.
For nearly two decades, the organization rented a couple of different spaces to receive the many benfiquistas in the region. It initially occupied a hall of just under one thousand square feet, where it remained for the first four years. As membership and interest grew, so did the need to find a larger space. In 1986, it rented a location with double the capacity where it stayed for the next decade. It was here that, after financial difficulties due to an increase in rent, its members decided to take the most formidable step in the organization’s history: the purchase of a property.
“The purchase was completed in 2000, but the process began in 1999. Ten members lent the money [for the down payment]. Some lent ten thousand and others thirty thousand dollars, which enabled us to complete the purchase. It was an old church. We were lucky that, at the time, a Portuguese priest interceded with the Parish on our behalf to facilitate the purchase. Without his help, we would have paid a lot more. [The building] cost $285,000.00. We kept a very accessible mortgage, but the building was huge. It had a total of ten thousand square feet – five in each floor – plus the basement,” Fernandes recalled.
The new headquarters granted the organization with a heightened status in the community. Here, they served lunches and dinners, and had a bar open every day. On Saturdays and Sundays, they held fado performances. Special occasions such as Easter and the famous Baile da Pinha were celebrated here to full capacity. They offered Zumba and aerobic classes, and even had a theatre group that performed in Ottawa a couple of times, and the marchas do Benfica. Sport Montreal e Benfica also once had two soccer teams – senior and old-timer squads. It was a dynamic organization that boasted social and culture significance. “We always had a full house. Sometimes, people would get upset because we didn’t have room for more,” Carlos Fernandes said. However, the lack of new immigration and the aging of the membership began to contribute to a steady decline in attendance. This meant that difficult decisions needed to be made.
“It was a good purchase, a good step. However, immigration to Montreal [from Portugal] stopped and our members were mostly in their 50s and 60s. Many have already passed away, others relocated to Portugal. At one point, we had 285 paying members, now we have 48. Then the pandemic forced us to close. In 2021, we decided to sell the building because we had a monthly expense of four thousand dollars. Meanwhile, many of the Portuguese left the area of Bairro Portugues and moved to the suburbs,” Carlos Fernandes said, to then point out that “the biggest problem are the [android] boxes that people now have at home. Anyone can watch soccer at home but, before, it was broadcast at the associations. We charged $10 a person for each game. This alone helped keep our finances stable. With the boxes, we lost that.”
Although it became clear that selling the building would be the most viable solution for the sustenance of the organization, it was not without struggle that this objective was accomplished. For one, the prospect caused division among members and sympathizers. Then, litigation caused further harm when an association that was renting the space wanted to force the sale of the building. Sport Montreal e Benfica had to take the case to court, which it eventually won, but not before spending thousands of dollars in legal fees. “It was a very difficult year because we not only lost rent money but also because we had to spend more on lawyers. It was not easy,” Fernandes lamented. Added to the decline in interest and to the situation further exacerbated due to the pandemic was the difficulty to find people interested in being part of the Board of Directors. “Just to give you an idea, I’ve been the President for the last twenty years. Currently, we have an Administrative Commission composed of six people,” he said.
The building was finally sold for $2,350,000. “In part, the pandemic helped resolve Benfica’s problems because we made a decision that would eventually need to be made. It was a difficult decision because it was a good building, but too expensive to maintain. In the last few years, we spent a lot of money on it. We had to fix the roof, which cost us over one hundred thousand dollars, and we needed to take out a loan. The sale of the building will allow us to maintain the doors open in Montreal without financial problems for the next ten or fifteen years. We have close to two million dollars in the bank. We have an accountant who pays the bills and who prepares our financial statements. We are thinking about renting a space with a bar where our members can have a drink and watch a game,” Carlos Fernandes announced.
The idea is to upgrade the organization’s status from Filial to Casa do Benfica. This means that the space will need to follow the parameters set for all the Benfica Houses around the world.
For this purpose, Carlos Fernandes has already begun discussions with Sport Lisboa e Benfica to arrange for the director for the Benfica Houses, Jorge Jacinto, to be part of the grand reopening of the organization. He won’t be, however, the first visitor from the mother club in Montreal. In the past, personalities such as Eusébio, Luis Filipe Vieira, José Águas, Michel Preud’homme, Chalana, Veloso and Mozer, among others, have also been special guests at the organization’s anniversary celebration.
Sport Montreal e Benfica may have tripped, but it hasn’t fallen. It is now up to the benfiquistas in Montreal to guarantee that it can resume the journey to a more sustainable future.
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