Andre Villas-Boas has won a hard-fought election to become FC Porto‘s next president.
The former Dragões treble-winning manager gained over 60% of the members’ vote in a fiercely fought and often unpleasant campaign against incumbent Pinto da Costa.
86-year-old Da Costa had been in the post for a whopping 42 years and was rarely challenged up until Villas-Boas arrived on the scene.
The former coach, who had stints at Chelsea, Tottenham and Marseille after his Porto heroics, will now lead the side for the next four years.
Villas-Boas never hid his desire to become Porto president, and upon teasing his candidacy last year with a criticism of the incumbent, things began to get personal.
Rallies for Villas-Boas became violent and there were later raids and arrests at the properties of prominent ultra group leaders.
Villas-Boas later remarked that Da Costa was unfit for the role due to his age, while the elder candidate fought back with a bizarre remark that a series of unfavourable referring decisions coincided with his rival’s return to the club.
Da Costa was seen leaving the Estádio do Dragão after his defeat and was bombarded in his car by members of the Super Dragões fan group who showed their support for the departing leader.
Before votes were cast, Da Costa managed one final publicity stunt by announcing that he had shaken hands with head coach Sérgio Conceição on a four-year contract extension.
Now though, with the fan favourite miles off the pace in the Portuguese league, Villas-Boas’ first task could be to give that decision a re-think.
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