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30/11/09
Nacional's coach Manuel Machado
is in an induced coma in intensive care in a Madeira hospital after undergoing an operation for a hernia on Tuesday; he subsequently contracted an infection. He is reported to be in a serious but stable condition. He was replaced on the bench on Saturday by assistant José Augusto, who also takes the team to Bremen for their Europa League tie this week.
15/11/09
Carlos Carvalhal, 43, is the new coach of Sporting, taking over from Paulo Bento. His contract is until the end of the season, with one more as optional. Carvalhal has been served a number of
clubs in his coaching career: Sporting Espinho, Freamunde, Desportivo das Aves, Leixões, Vitória de Setúbal, Belenenses, Sporting Braga, Beira-Mar, Asteras Tripolis (Greece) and Marítimo. He was sacked from
Marítimo earlier in the season after a poor start.
Portuguese coach António Conceição ('Toni') has been sacked by Romanian club Cluj
with the team at the top of the league table. His contract was to run until 2011. Toni won a Cup and Supercup with Cluj. Italian Andrea Morlini takes over.
11/11/09
Former Benfica goalkeeper Robert Enke, 32, was killed on Tuesday by a train at a level crossing in Hannover, Germany. Friend and agent Jorg Neblung said that it had been a case of suicide.
Enke had recently recovered from an intestinal infection that had kept him out of the Hannover team. In 2006 he lost his daughter Lara, 2, who suffered from heart problems. In 2008, he and his wife adopted a young
girl of two months, Leila.
Robert Enke was at Benfica
between 1999 and 2002 and was well respected there. He made his début on 22 August 1999 under compatriot Jupp Heynckes in a 1-1 draw with Rio Ave. His time at the Luz coincided with a lean spell for the club: third place in his first season, sixth in 2000/01 and fourth in 2001/02. He played
93 times for Benfica, his last game a 0-2 defeat to União de Leiria on 2 March 2002.
06/11/09
Paulo Bento resigned as coach of Sporting
on Friday. He had been in the job for four years and 15 days (signed 23 October 2005), the second longest-serving coach in the history of the club after Joseph Szabo (346 games). Under him, the team
played 194 official games, winning 117, drawing 46 and losing 31.
High points in his time at the club were two Taças de Portugal and two Portuguese Supertaças won. The low point was perhaps the 1-7 defeat at Bayern Munich in the Champions League last season, and the aggregate score of 1-12 in the same tie.
This season, Sporting started poorly in the Liga and are currently 7th, the worst start
for 15 years. In Europe, they did not qualify for the Group Stage of the Champions League but are doing well in the Europa Cup
(three wins and one draw in the group stage), although the home draw (1-1) with Ventspils on Thursday, followed once again by white handkerchiefs and whistles
from the crowd, was effectively the catalyst for Bento's resignation.
Assistant coach Leonel Pontes will take over coaching duties until a permanent replacement is found.
FC Porto SAD, the commercial arm of the club, was the only one among the Big Three to post a profit
(5.54 million euros) for the last financial year (until June 2008), although its profits fell by 13.3 %. Benfica posted a loss of 34.86 million euros, while Sporting's loss was 13.35 million.
FC Porto SAD's payroll costs were up 21.7% to 44.15 million euros. Benfica's went up 36.4 % to 37.13 million euros. Sporting's rose by 19.5 % to 23.73 million euros.
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