Gérard López is the dazzling gravedigger of Boavista Porto – the venture capitalist is already ruining the third football club

The Estádio do Bessa in Porto's Boavista district is one of those arenas that seemed timelessly atmospheric. With its narrow, steep stands, it exuded a great atmosphere when it was packed for visits by local rivals FC Porto or the giants Benfica and Sporting Lisbon . But these prominent guests won't be coming anytime soon, perhaps never again.

After being relegated from the first division, Boavista was denied a license to play in the first, second, and third national leagues. They are now expected to continue playing in the Porto district league—if they continue at all. Debts amount to approximately 150 million euros. Not even the Bessa stadium is fully paid off, even though it was completed for the 2004 European Championship.

This isn't just any club: Boavista is one of only two clubs outside the big three to ever win the Portuguese championship. Unlike Lisbon's Os Belenenses in 1946, Boavista even achieved this feat in the era of color television: in 2001. Five additional cup victories make the club with the distinctive checkerboard jerseys the fourth most successful in the country's history. In its 123 years of existence, it has never played as low as it is now.

Boavista's decline is no accident, but also due to the owner responsible. Gérard López is a Spanish-Luxembourgish venture capitalist, under whose management in recent years six-time French champions Girondins Bordeaux plummeted to the fourth division and Belgian club Royal Excelsior Mouscron disappeared from the club register.

Like these clubs, Boavista was already in financial trouble when López arrived in 2021. Those who are sympathetic to López might call him a dreamer with a savior complex. From a more sober perspective, he tries to replicate a typical business approach: buying up ailing companies and turning them around profitably. But what's left is always false promises and unpaid bills.

López, the son of Spanish immigrants, made his fortune as a computer scientist and self-made man. After success with his own companies, he was one of the first investors in the messaging service Skype in 2003. In 2005, he sold his shares for an estimated €400 million, making a hundredfold profit. He was just 33 years old at the time.

He launched his sports portfolio in 2007 with the traditional Luxembourg club CS Fola Esch, whose football pitch he had seen every day from his parents' apartment. In 2009, he acquired 75 percent of the Renault Formula 1 team, which he soon renamed Lotus because a Lotus had been his favorite toy car as a child. He managed the team until 2015, unsuccessfully, but with one side effect: It was his gateway into the world of the famous and powerful.

After letting Vladimir Putin drive one of his cars, he became a friend and business protégé of the Russian president. He raised billions in private equity for the development of the gigantic gas reserves in the Arctic Circle. "I am a creator," he once defined himself years ago to the newspaper "El País": "I don't sit back and watch others construct the future."

In football, he envisioned one of those club networks, like those established by Red Bull or Abu Dhabi with the City group. However, compared to these, López's resources are limited. In 2017, he acquired the French first division club Lille OSC with investor money.

After a tumultuous start with a relegation battle, threats of player involvement, a transfer ban, and financial irregularities, he was rescued by the best personnel decision he ever made in football. López hired sporting director Luís Campos, who, with his eye for talent, simultaneously brought Lille a sporting renaissance and spectacular transfer surpluses. Lille finished second, fourth, and first in consecutive years. Shortly before the 2021 championship , however, López was forced to hand the club over to his financiers at the Elliott Fund because he was unable to service the loans on time.

While Campos moved on to Paris Saint-Germain and assembled the squad for the 2024/25 Champions League winners , López began his sad hat trick of being a gravedigger. He took over Mouscron in 2020. A year later, the club was relegated from the Belgian top flight. The players were no longer paid and went on strike. In March 2022, the club declared bankruptcy and disappeared.

He joined Bordeaux in 2021, but again suffered relegation to the second division in his first season , followed two years later by a forced transfer to the fourth. A new buyer has not yet been found; recently, a group led by former Bayern Munich chairman Oliver Kahn withdrew an offer, while López remains steadfast in his commitment to a ten-year debt reduction plan. Liabilities are said to be close to €100 million.

"Things have to change, start from scratch," López now announced for Boavista as well. A restructuring plan from last year was rejected by the Portuguese Football Association, and Boavista was unable to provide guarantees to the tax office and social security – debts to these two authorities alone are said to amount to around €40 million. Players were paid so sporadically that American soccer player Reggie Cannon was able to demonstrate in a court case against his former club that he had received his salary late for 28 of his 29 months at Boavista.

In 2023, the club was slapped with a five-year transfer ban by FIFA due to unpaid debts to other clubs. When the ban expired in February 2025, Boavista signed nine unemployed players in one fell swoop, including former Basel goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik and former PSG defender Layvin Kurzawa. They were unable to prevent relegation, but arrived in time to witness the lights go out: In April, the electricity supplier cut off the Bessa's electricity due to unpaid bills.

In mid-July, the police showed up and confiscated documents, hard drives, and computers. Six club employees are suspected of embezzling around €10 million through sham transactions and money laundering. At least Gérard López is not among the accused so far. He can continue to define football as a "film about life," as he once did during his time at Lille: "The things in it relate directly to death and birth."

In Porto, they can only pray that the order is correct. In case of a worst-case scenario, the Panteras Negras fan group has now founded its own club under its name, so that Boavista can continue to exist even if the old club disappears.