Election REACTION: Frederico Varandas named the 43rd president of Sporting CP
Today, on the 8th September 2018, is the day that Sporting CP discovered the man to lead the club into the next chapter in the club's history.
With just under two hours of the election remaining we already saw over 21,000 votes cast, a total surpassing the previous record of just over 18,700, as the race to become the successor of Bruno de Carvalho got well under way.
Bruno de Carvalho, it can be remembered, was voted out of office resoundingly, with over 70% of the votes in favour of his removal. It came after a season of uproar, with the former president criticising his players on social media before threatening to suspend then from the main team, while fan violence towards the end of the season rounded off a season to forget for the Lisbon club.
The emerging frontrunners for presidency were Frederico Varandas, the Sporting doctor between 2011 and 2018, and João Benedito, the legendary Sporting futsal goalkeeper who represented the club for two decades between 1995 to 2016, and it was the former who was announced the victor of the election after 22,510 votes were cast in total, winning 42.42% of the votes.
His nearest challenger, Benedito, wasn't far behind, winning 36.84% of the votes.
However, all is not as it seems. Indeed, in terms of the popular vote, more individual people actually voted for the runner-up, Benedito, than the eventual winner Varandas.
The reason that Varandas ultimately took the title is due to the system in which the results are calculated; in essence, the longer you have been a member of Sporting, the more valuable your vote - the vote of older, more established Sporting members is therefore worth more than that of the younger members. As a result, despite Benedito getting more individual votes, because Varandas' voting demographic was older, Varandas took the crown of Sporting's 43rd president.
The other four major candidates were Jose Maria Ricciardi (14.55%), Dias Ferreira (2.35%), Fernando Tavares Pereira (0.9%), and Rui Jorge Rego (0.51%).
