With Crystal Palace co-owner John Textor about to make his purchase of Botafogo official, the Brazilian side has already been preparing for the new kind of administration they’ll have.
Among the significant changes that are about to come, there’s a potential partnership with the Selhurst Park side, which is being worked on even before the takeover is finalised.
Last week, Botafogo president Durvésio Mello and director Eduardo Freeland both went to London to get to know Crystal Palace’s facilities up close. They were accompanied by Textor, who showed the plans he has for the Rio de Janeiro club.
The main focus was said to be the Premier League’s side’s academy, which has been referred to as an example. So now that the officials are back in Brazil, they had a word with the local press and explained what can be taken from that trip.
“The exchange of knowledge was a very important thing, it is important to have this channel open”, said Freeland (via Globo Esporte).
“They’re in the process of restructuring the academy, building some fields. It was impressive to see the Crystal Palace project as a whole. The perception of everything we talked about there is that the project for Botafogo is just as big. This motivates us a lot in relation to the size we are going to have, physical structure, exchange of knowledge and what he aims for Botafogo in the short and medium term.”
Freeland also claimed there should be an interchange, not only of young players, but also of professionals, between the clubs.
“This is already a limitation for the academy, but I believe it is not the focus. The exchange will happen permanently, but not necessarily to play official competition, much more for the exchange not only of players, but of professionals. The trend is that professionals from here go there and vice versa. This is all still to be discussed, because it was more a trip to get to know than to get into the details of the project.”
