FORMER Portuguese champions Boavista are in danger of extinction after years of chaos.
The crisis club stunned European football when they pipped local rivals Porto to the title by a single point in 2001 – with a side including iconic Portugal keeper Ricardo.
But they are now on the brink of collapse due to spiralling financial trouble.
Boavista were administratively relegated to the FIFTH TIER of Portuguese football in the summer after finishing bottom of the Primeira Liga last season.
That left Portugal’s fourth most successful team competing in a local district league.
But the club may now cease to exist altogether after failing to register enough players for two games in a row.
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The Porto FA took the decision to cancel their match against Ventura SC on Wednesday night.
That came after Boavista also forfeiting their previous match 3-0 against Panteras Negras FC, a team recently formed by the club’s Ultras.
Boavista are majority owned by the controversial Gerard Lopez, who has similarly overseen Bordeaux’s shock relegation to France’s amateur fourth tier after legal action from 400 unpaid creditors.
Lopez’s Belgian team Royal Exclesior Mouscron were also declared bankrupt in 2022.
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Boavista, who have also had the likes of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Raul Meireles on their books, are now so overrun in debt they had electricity cut off at their Estadio de Bessa home in April for failing to pay a bill.
Then, in July, police officers used a battering ram to enter the club’s headquarters to seize documents with suspicions that six club executives had engaged in tax fraud and money laundering.
Lopez is not one of the six people identified by the Portuguese police and no criminal charges have been pressed against him.
Boavista are one of the oldest clubs in Portugal, having been founded in 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers.
Besides the big three of Benfica, Porto and Sporting CP, Boavista are one of only two teams, along with Belenenses, to have won the league title.
They have also claimed five Portuguese Cups and faced Liverpool and Manchester United in the Champions League.
In February 2025, they signed 11 free agents including the likes of former PSG defender Layvin Kurzawa and Chelsea midfielder Marco Van Ginkel but were still relegated.
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Their fate now lies in the hands of the Porto FA’s disciplinary board, whose regulations suggest unjustified failure to appear in two consecutive official matches will see the club punished with a drop in division and a fine of €600 (£520).
Boavista will have the opportunity to appeal if they are sanctioned.
Inside Boavista’s almost-empty stadium as long-suffering fans fear extinction
THE lights were on, but barely anyone was home.
As SunSport walked towards Estadio do Bessa for Boavista’s final match before Christmas last year, there wasn’t exactly a buzzing, festive football atmosphere.
Embattled Boavista won the Portuguese title as recently as 2001, and even had their historic home given a lick of paint for Euro 2004.
But recent years had been cruel on Porto’s second club, with attendances having dwindled and interest waned, particularly since controversial Gerard Lopez’s takeover in 2021.
Lopez, 53, oversaw former French giants Bordeaux’s stunning fall from grace, and those that did bother to turn up to last December’s clash with AVS were clearly concerned that the same could happen to them.
With 3,321 supporters having taken their seats in the 28,263-seater stadium, the match got underway amid half-hearted cheers.
Boavista had given a decent account of themselves against Sporting CP last time out, only losing 3-2 at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
But they never got going against AVS, with players labouring around the pitch and a dire lack of quality from either side the prevailing factor.
After one of the worst, dullest matches of football SunSport has ever witnessed, the contest inevitably finished 0-0.
As SunSport trudged away from the ground on the hunt for a pastel de nata, one could be forgiven for thinking it surely couldn’t get any worse than that.
It could. Boavista would go on to lose their next eight games in a row on the way to relegation, and quite possibly, extinction.
By Etienne Fermie
