Commentary by Manuel Silvério
Independent sports analyst and consultant on regional development
(Former public official with international experience and long-standing dedication to public policy and sports development)
I write these notes simply as someone who has served sport from within the system – in Macau and beyond – without any personal interest. I do so with gratitude and with a simple yet genuine wish: that the path of sport in Macau may go further.
As I begin this column, my purpose is clear: to record, with calmness, restraint and a sense of responsibility, what I have learned over decades of service to public sport, in Macau and elsewhere. Not to offer lessons, nor to seek prominence, but to contribute to a more informed, more demanding and – I hope – more useful public debate, one with greater practical meaning.
In Macau, sport has never been merely a list of competitions. It has always been a mirror of what we are as a city: our capacity for organisation and mobilisation, the way we nurture young people, our sense of community, and our ambition to reach wider international stages. But sport has also often exposed our weaknesses: a dependence on short-term outcomes, fragmentation among institutions, administrative inertia that delays decisions, and the difficulty of turning talent into sustained pathways of development.
Over the years, I have seen institutions take shape, projects grow and infrastructure being built. I have seen athletes and coaches push beyond their limits with limited resources. I have also lived through less fortunate periods: moments when the vitality of the associative movement was not matched by coherent and stable policies; times when “governing” was confused with “operating”; situations in which there was too much intervention where autonomy should have prevailed, and too little where guidance, standards and vision were needed.
For that reason, these notes are not an exercise in nostalgia. Memory does not mean becoming trapped in the past; it means understanding the road already travelled in order to choose, with greater clarity, the direction ahead. And today, defining that direction requires at least three pillars: strategic vision, technical competence and the capacity to deliver – the ability to turn ideas into concrete results on the ground.
Macau’s challenges are clear. The first is structural: connecting what remains disconnected – schools and clubs, grassroots development and high performance, broad participation and excellence, sport and health, sport and education, sport and civic culture. The second is a question of governance: clarifying roles, avoiding overlap, reducing duplication and creating permanent mechanisms for coordination and accountability. There is also a third challenge, often overlooked: ensuring that sport continuously generates measurable human and social value – healthier lifestyles, greater inclusion, stronger discipline, more opportunities for young people and stronger community cohesion.
This last idea has two dimensions. The first is more visible: raising the quality of sports practice and supporting the associative movement, creating better conditions for athletes to develop and represent Macau with professionalism and dignity. The second is deeper: using sport as an instrument of human development – to educate, to shape character, to build a sense of belonging and to offer positive pathways in a time when the attention of young people is constantly dispersed and contested.
The birth of this column is closely connected to the times we are living through. Macau is undergoing important institutional and social changes. Whenever structures are adjusted, the risk of losing memory, repeating mistakes or making decisions without fully understanding their real impact on the ground inevitably increases. That is why I have chosen this format of “notes”: to keep certain essential questions regularly present in the public sphere – what works, what does not, where there is room for improvement, and how that improvement may be achieved.
In the coming months, I will address concrete themes drawn from lived experience and personal reflection: the role of clubs in athlete development; the relationship between school sport and the associative system; the professionalisation of coaches and sports administrators; the place of sport for all; major sporting events and what they do – or do not – leave behind as legacy; regional integration and the opportunities of the Greater Bay Area; and also the new frontiers of contemporary sport, including esports. In these emerging fields, the absence of institutional frameworks and technical understanding can often be more damaging than any rushed moral judgement.
I will write with frankness, but with respect. With criticism when necessary, but without cynicism. And with hope, because I sincerely believe that Macau can go further – if it makes the right choices and values those who sustain sport, often far from the spotlight: athletes, coaches, administrators, teachers, doctors, physiotherapists, rehabilitation professionals, managers, operational staff, volunteers and many others.
In essence, these “Notes” are simply that: an attempt to share, with clarity and honesty, the experience of someone who has served sport from within the system, recognising both its achievements and its shortcomings. And maintaining a calm conviction: the future of sport in Macau must be built with clarity, consistency and quiet courage.
Because institutions may change.
But the responsibility to serve Macau – and to think about its future – should never cease.
End
