Frederico Nuno Faro Varandas (born 19 September 1979) is a Portuguese sports executive, medical doctor and former commissioned military captain of the Portuguese Army, who has been the president of Sporting CP since 2018.[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] With a presidency initially marked by contestation, the Varandas tenure would become the third most titled in the club's history, behind João Rocha's and Ribeiro Ferreira's, as well as characterized by a discreet presidential position and the renewal of the Alvalade Stadium. During the club's last election, in 2022, Varandas was elected with 85.8% of the votes.
Early life and career
Son of a doctor father and a chemistry and physics teacher mother, and hailing from the Avenida de Roma area in Lisbon, in his childhood, he practised gymnastics and swimming at Sporting Clube de Portugal.[10][11][12] His paternal grandfather, a scientist who was already a long-standing affiliated member, introduced him to sports fandom at the club.[12] Before adulthood, Varandas wanted to be an architect but found he lacked the necessary vocation or talent. He then tried to get admission into the medical school at the end of his secondary education studies but the very high grades needed to enter medical school didn’t allow him to achieve that goal. Following his mother’s advice, he then applied for military medicine and was selected. He studied medicine at the Medical School of the New University of Lisbon from where he graduated in medicine in 2005 as an external medical student since he was a pupil of the Portuguese Military Academy.[13][12] He completed a postgraduate course in sports medicine in 2007. In 2008, as a lieutenantmilitary doctor, he was deployed in Afghanistan with a detachment of Portuguese Commandos which was part of the International Security Assistance Force.[14][15][16][17] Whilst carrying out his military duties in Afghanistan, his group of soldiers was ambushed in a clash which they all survived. This episode marked him deeply.[12]
His career in football had begun in 2007, when he joined the medical staff at Vitória Setúbal;[12] two years later he was promoted to clinical director of the same football team, a position he held until the summer of 2011, when he was invited to become head doctor of the senior men's football team at Sporting Portugal.[16] Varandas was the chief doctor of Sporting Portugal's main men's professional football team until 2018.[18][19] In 2016, after a period of specialised training in accordance with the Portuguese Order of Physicians' (Ordem dos Médicos) guidelines, he had become a medical specialist in the field of sports medicine.[16] During the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal and the ensuing state of emergency, Varandas, already the incumbent president of Sporting Portugal, was voluntarily commissioned by the Serviço Nacional de Saúde (Portugal's National Health Service) as a doctor.[20][3][12]
President of Sporting CP
Sousa Cintra served as acting president of Sporting Clube de Portugal - Futebol, SAD during the mandate of an emergency management committee established after the ousting of Sporting CP's president Bruno de Carvalho from his post on 24 June 2018. After has been appointed acting president on 24 June,[21] Cintra officially stepped down in September 2018 following the club's elections that elected Frederico Varandas as the new president of the multi-sports club.[22]
While Varandas was working in the capacity of president of Sporting CP, a financial restructuring was started by the sports club under his direction in 2019 and included the successful renegotiation of bank debt resorting to debt restructuring and debt relief, as well as the repurchasing of convertible debt belonging to Novobanco and BCP at a discount to par value, which was finalized in 2024.[23][24] This allowed Sporting Clube de Portugal to take ownership of 88 per cent of Sporting Clube de Portugal – Futebol, SAD's stock from 15 February 2024 onwards,[25] instead of the 83.90% it owned until that time.[26]
Since 2019, and after a number of alarming scandals and illicit situations involving supporters' groups and some of its most prominent members (a fact that was also true for supporters' groups of rival clubs),[27][28][29] the board of Sporting CP headed by Frederico Varandas, in a statement expressing disapproval of negative behaviours in the club,[30] established a number of rules regulating organised groups of supporters which would lead to the protocol of the 2022–03 season,[31][32] designed to be renewed on a case-by-case and year-by-year basis: "The protocol regulates the relationship between SCP, SCP SAD and the GOA [Organised Group of Supporters] during the 2022/2023 sporting season, establishing the terms and conditions for granting technical, financial and material support to said GOA. In accordance with what is stipulated in Law 39/2009, the protocol binds the GOA to remain in the Zones with Special Conditions of Access and Permanence of Supporters (ZCEAP)."[33] This yearly protocols were established in accordance with the new legal framework enacted in a draft law of 2022 submitted to the Portuguese Parliament with the aim of "strengthening mechanisms to combat violence in sport".[31]
In men's football, the most popular and profitable sports department of the multi-sport club, on 11 May 2021, Sporting CP secured its 19th Primeira Liga title (23rd title when the old Campeonato de Portugal is taken into account)[34] after a 1–0 home win against Boavista. It was Sporting CP's first title in the Primeira Liga since the 2001–02 season. It was also the first Primeira Liga title since that season not being won by either Benfica or Porto.[35] In an editorial for the official Sporting newspaper at the end of the 2020–2021 sports season, he wrote: "This season we wrote another page of glory in the history of Sporting Clube de Portugal, full of eclecticism, materialised with achievements in all sports," "the long-awaited 23rd title of National Champions is ours. This season, from futsal to basketball, from hockey to athletics, from rugby to table tennis, judo and surfing, our athletes have once again outdone themselves, achieving the club's best season in 115 years."[36]
Also in 2021, Sporting CP, headed by club president Frederico Varandas, announced that it would change the colour of the seats in the multicoloured stands of the Estádio José Alvalade to green (the main colour of the sports club). The colour change was completed in 2022.[37] For the 2022–2026 quadrennium, Frederico Varandas' administration started works of building renovation and modernization of the club's facilities at the José Alvalade Stadium and the Cristiano Ronaldo Academy.[38][39] These included the removal of green and yellow tiles in order to make the stadium an all green and white building, renovation of the presidential stand and the professional team changing rooms, installation of Wi-Fi and technological modernisation of the turnstile ticketing system at the stadium.[40] The facility for Sporting CP Esports team at the club’s stadium was also modernised with the help of the club’s sponsor NOS and was upgraded with state-of-the-art HP Omen and PlayStation 5 machines, among other improvements for both players and visitors.[41][42]
In February 2024, the board of directors of Sporting CP headed by Varandas renewed the protocol with the University of Lisbon, thus continuing the link that had been in place since 2007, and announced an investment of three million euros in the modernisation of the EUL Pole in Lisbon, the home of the club's academy for under-13 football players, athletics and other sports. The improvements included the construction of new football pitches, the remodelling of the synthetic turf, the construction of new stands and nine changing rooms, as well as the use of the EUL swimming pool at specific times for Sporting CP's swimming teams and the remodelling and expansion of the administrative building, thus, in addition to men's and women's football, Sporting CP's swimming and rugby departments would also benefit from the works.[43]
In May 2024, at the reception for the squad at the Lisbon City Hall chaired by Carlos Moedas, after achieving the Primeira Liga title for a second time under his leadership as chairman of Sporting CP, he declared: "It's a paradigm shift, the end of an era in which Sporting won sporadically and at intervals of decades. It's confirmation of a new era where Sporting no longer looks up to see its rivals and is once again prepared to win."[44]
Personal life
Frederico Varandas is married to Katarina Larsson, a Sweden-born Portuguese former triathlete who competed for Sporting Clube de Portugal and Portugal in the triathlon, and with whom he has two children born in 2019 and 2023.[45][46][47][48][49] They first met each other at the sports club located in the Alvalade – Lumiar area of Lisbon.[50] They started dating in 2018.[51] Larsson has worked as supply chain manager for the Tetra Pak factory in Carnaxide, in the municipality of Oeiras.[52][53][54]
By invitation of a former guardian who was already of advanced age, he became guardian of Paulinho, a long-standing kit man of Sporting Portugal who has an intellectual disability and whose Varandas described as “a great figure in Sporting, a spectacular human being. A super-intuitive person, sensitive, very, very smart, smarter than most people think. The example of a happy person”.[55][56]
