Benfica President tells Jesus to use academy players

Benfica President Luis Filipe Vieira has already informed manager Jorge Jesus to not expect the type of funds spent last summer on players and for the Benfica manager to use academy players that will be returning to the club from their loans for next season. Benfica spent a record €115.5M on new player acquisitions in the summer but has seen little return on their investment with the club currently sitting in fourth place in the league and besides making the Taca de Portugal final is out of all other competitions.

Benfica also failed in reaching this seasons Champions League group stage which resulted in the club selling star center back Ruben Dias to make up the lost revenue. Benfica currently have academy players Gedson Fernandes, Jota, Florentino, Ferro, Tiago Dantas and Tomas Tavares on loan elsewhere but Jesus in his typical stubborn fashion feels that these players are not ready to play for the club at this time. Benfica currently have only three academy players with the club in Diogo Goncalves, Goncalo Ramos and Nuno Tavares, with only Goncalves seeing regular playing time.

Benfica players set for International duty

Benfica gets set for a pause in action with the International break upon us after Sunday's game against Braga and will only return to action on April 3rd against Maritimo which is almost a full two weeks without any real game action. Jorge Jesus will still be working with the players that remain as they look to continue their better play of late but will be without the players below who will be on International duty with their respective countries, South American nations are not in action again until June.

Portugal - Rafa Silva

Greece - Odysseas Vlachodimos

Morocco - Adel Taarabt

Belgium, Germany and Switzerland have yet to announce their squads which could see Jan Vertonghen, Luca Waldschmidt and Haris Seferovic depart as well for qualifiers.

Benfica ready to sell Estadio da Luz naming rights

Benfica has teamed up with WME in a sports partnership to find a lead sponsor for the Estadio da Luz, it is the first time that the club has had a naming rights partner and WME will also lead the search for a sponsor for the teams youth academy. The Estadio da Luz has not had a sponsor since opening in October 2003 and the club is looking globally to sell the naming rights of its two most prized possessions. Benfica are hoping that this move will give the club more international exposure as it looks to maximize its brands potential. WME has plenty of experience in the sponsorship game working in the past few years with the NFL's Denver Broncos and NBA's Los Angles Lakers.