António Augusto Serra Campos Dias da Cunha (born 1933 in Beira,

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

) is a Portuguese businessman.

Early life

He was born in

when the territory was under Portuguese rule. He moved to Portugal at age nine. He earned a Licentiate in Law from the Faculty of Law of the

University of Lisbon The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...

. He practiced various sports while a college student, alternating between

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

and

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

. In

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

he participated in the national championship of the 1st division.

Career

He established many businesses and gave support to social institutions. He associated with the

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

at invitation of Emídio Pinheiro, a former President of the General Assembly. Before the

Carnation Revolution The Carnation Revolution (), code-named Operation Historic Turn (), also known as the 25 April (), was a military coup by military officers that overthrew the Estado Novo government on 25 April 1974 in Portugal. The coup produced major socia ...

he became a friend of José Roquette and, later went with him to the Direction of the SCP. In August 2000, he assumed the Club Presidency and of the Patrimony Managing Society of Sporting as the 45th

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

. He succeeded Roquette, who had transformed the club into a Sport Anonymous Society. Under his presidency started at the end of 2001 the works of the new

Estádio José Alvalade The Estádio José Alvalade (; ') is a Football (soccer), football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the Estádio José Alvalade (1956), older stadium. The stadium is named afte ...

and Sporting was national champion in soccer in the season 2001/2002. During his tenure he became notorious for his complaints of "the fault is the system's" often when the club suffered defeats that were not directly its own. He resigned in 2005 in solidarity with manager José Peseiro and was succeeded by Filipe Soares Franco. Da Cunha is not a member of a political party, but is connected to the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

, and publicly supported the candidacies of

Mário Soares Mário Alberto Nobre Lopes Soares (; 7 December 1924 – 7 January 2017) was a Portugal, Portuguese politician, who served as prime minister of Portugal from 1976 to 1978 and from 1983 to 1985, and subsequently as the List of Presidents of P ...

and

Jorge Sampaio Jorge Fernando Branco de Sampaio (; 18 September 1939 – 10 September 2021) was a Portuguese lawyer and politician who was the 18th President of Portugal from 1996 to 2006. Sampaio was a member of the Socialist Party, a party which he ...

References

1933 births Living people People from Beira, Mozambique Portuguese football chairmen and investors Portuguese jurists Portuguese businesspeople Sporting CP presidents {{Portugal-footy-bio-stub