Brand expert Carlos Coelho warned that Cristiano Ronaldo's departure from the Portuguese national team represents an economic earthquake threatening to cancel sponsorship deals and undermine the value of the Portuguese Football Federation's brand.
The head of brand consultancy firm Eviti Brand Corp mentioned the crisis surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo's exit from the Portugal camp in statements published by the newspaper "Record": "The departure of the team captain is a massive loss in value that no sporting result can compensate for."
He added: "There is a lack of awareness in dealing with authority, and the Portuguese Federation's brand is witnessing a significant decline. Therefore, this unexpected event, characterized by gross mismanagement regarding value or the resulting loss of value, represents a major setback."
He continued: "This impact does not threaten the continuity of the national team or its sporting future, but it directly affects the economic and commercial aspects of the sport."
He completed: "The matter does not rise to the level of an earthquake in the sense of the national team collapsing; it will not disappear but will continue its journey, play, and win. That is not the issue, but the crisis lies in the decline of the brand, as the team loses one of its most important assets from time to time."
He resumed: "Hundreds of millions around the world follow Portugal's matches because of Cristiano Ronaldo's presence and do not care much about the match result, whether it is a win or a loss."
He affirmed: "Excluding Cristiano Ronaldo strikes at the heart of the financial side of the Portuguese Federation, at a time when football is no longer just a sport but has transformed into a multi-billion dollar industry whose sustainability depends on the ability to expand its fan base."
He warned: "Try putting yourselves in the place of a sponsor that signed a contract linking its brand to these assets; you would have every right to say that the fundamental conditions have changed and demand meetings or even go as far as cancelling contracts. Brazilians' interest in their national team may increase, but global interest will decline."
He cited Al-Nassr's tour in China, where the absence of the Portuguese international star led to a sharp drop in attendance from 55,000 to 5,000 spectators: "The global reach of the national team faces a major setback."
The expert agreed with the views of former coach Alex Ferguson, criticizing the manner in which the situation was handled: "Undermining the player represents destruction of value, and this could have been avoided."
He acknowledged: "You must treat the greatest gain in the history of Portuguese football with respect and care. If the player is 41 years old, he cannot be treated, either in terms of communication or sports, like a seventeen-year-old player. What happened was evidence of a lack of authority and decisiveness."
Carlos Coelho concluded regarding any potential sporting successes and that they would not be sufficient to limit the repercussions on the international scene: "This issue cannot be solved merely by achieving good results, as those results only matter to the Portuguese. The only way to mitigate the severity of the impact is to find a role for Cristiano Ronaldo within the structure of the national team, not necessarily on the pitch, but certainly not on the bench, through a diplomatic solution that appreciates the role he played over twenty years in serving the country."
At the end of his statements, the expert predicted that Cristiano Ronaldo's personal brand would emerge unscathed and might benefit from the media momentum generated by the incident.
