Portimão today delivered the completed questionnaire to the president of the Association of European Capitals and Cities of Sport (ACES) in Portugal, thus formalizing the first step towards its candidacy for the European City of Sport in 2019.
Isilda Gomes, mayor of Portimão, who handed the document over to Nuno Pedro Santos, from ACES Portugal, in a ceremony that took place this afternoon in the main hall of Paços do Concelho, guaranteed: "there will be no pharaonic works".
Because, he insisted on saying, Portimão's candidacy «can never be understood as “there they are again spending all the money”, as I have heard rumors going around. This is not a pharaonic candidacy, there will be no pharaonic works», guaranteed the mayor, in front of a room full of directors from most of the 81 collectivities and sports clubs in the county.
Isilda Gomes explained that the application is made "with the sports infrastructure we have", guaranteeing "our ability to organize this initiative with what we have".
The mayor admitted that the municipality of Portimão, despite being endowed with varied and quality sports infrastructure, has a gap: «we don't have an athletics track». But then, he underlined, if Portimão is chosen as the European City of Sport, he hopes to use the amount of 100 euros made available by the Portuguese Institute of Sport and Youth (IPDJ) to the winning cities to build the athletics track. However, he stressed, "we even have a racetrack where you can practice athletics."
After formalizing the delivery of the questionnaire, Isilda Gomes guaranteed that, «by the end of the year, we will know how much we are going to spend». Everything will be done with "very rigor, a lot of transparency", he insisted.
Nuno Santos, president of ACES Portugal, revealed that the answers to the questionnaire, given by Portimão, passed «all the demanding requirements for a city to apply for the European City of Sport».
«It all started about a year ago, when I visited various infrastructures [in Portimão], such as the stadium, the racecourse, the swimming pools and the tennis courts. This process will last until the end of the year”, he added.
Now the application dossier will be completed and a promotional video for Portimão will be made. By the end of the year, there will be more visits to local structures, in particular with the president of ACES Europe.
In January 2018, finally, at a gala at the European Parliament in Brussels, the winning city will be announced.
But in this race, Portimão is not alone and has another competitor: the city of Cascais, which has not yet made the candidacy official. Nuno Santos, from ACES Portugal, considers that it will be a «hard but healthy fight», as, in fact, «were the previous ones, between Almada and Braga, for 2018, in which Braga won, or between Coimbra and Gondomar, won by Gondomar, which this year is the European City of Sport».
As for the fact that Cascais is a municipality that has almost as many inhabitants as the entire Algarve, Nuno Santos believes that this will not harm Portimão. «Size doesn't matter», what counts is the quality of the infrastructure and the project presented, namely in terms of sport for all.
On the other hand, stressed the director of ACES Portugal, «Cascais does not have a multipurpose pavilion with the quality of your Arena».
The mayor of Portimão expressed her confidence that the candidacy of the Algarve city will be the winner. And, despite confessing that he didn't like flying on a plane, he said, in a joking tone: “I'm going to schedule a trip to Brussels in my agenda. I will be there to receive the witness pass, in January of next year».
Turning to the many sports directors who attended the ceremony, the mayor of Porto said that this is “above all your candidacy, because without the associations we would not have the possibility of fighting to have an event of this magnitude here, nor would we have the capacity to show what we are».
“This is going to be a project for all of us, not just for the Chamber, because it has to do with sport for everyone. The Superbikes or the World Motorboat Championship are named after Portimão abroad, but that's not exactly what it's about now. Now, it's about mobilizing society, getting everyone in motion, with an initiative that will mobilize everyone».
On the other hand, Custódio Moreno, regional delegate of the IPDJ, said that, despite the financial difficulties that the Portimão Chamber is experiencing, “money is not everything, because for this candidacy to be successful, the will of mayors and leaders is needed, and this, as can be seen, there is in abundance». "The city of Portimão is ready, has enough arguments and has the necessary people," he stressed.
As for the president of ACES Portugal, he also underlined that the status of European City of Sport has "a huge repercussion" on the local economy, not only for the people it attracts to sports competitions, but also for internships and other initiatives throughout a year. "All this is of great importance for cities," he guaranteed.
In the coming months, to finish preparing its application file, Portimão still has a lot of work to do. But, with the partnership of the municipality's sports clubs and the coordination of the municipality's Sports Division, the mayor, Isilda Gomes, asserts that she is “very, very confident”.
And when (or if) Portimão wins, the mayor has no doubts: «what is good for Portimão, is good for Lagoa, for Loulé, is good for the Algarve. We have to stop being little chapels and gain scale».
The title of European City of Sport is awarded every year by ACES Europe to European cities with between 25 and 500 inhabitants.
The award has been awarded since 2013, having been awarded, in Portugal, to Guimarães (2013), Maia (2014), Loulé (2015), Setúbal (2016), Gondomar (2017) and Braga (2018).
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