In the dispute for the soul of Juventus, the SAF lost the first match

One of the last bastions of old football in São Paulo, Clube Atlético Juventus will not become a joint-stock company. At least for a while. In a close vote, the proposal to sell football to AlmavivA, an Italian information technology multinational, was rejected.

The refusal took place in a tense meeting of the club’s deliberative council, held on the night of last Monday (6).

The opinion of the governing body of the body prevailed that approval would require a simple majority. For opponents, two-thirds of the voters would be needed. In the end, 53 of the 102 present rejected the sale.

For the fans who are proud of their working-class origins, the team being rooted in the Mooca neighborhood, east of São Paulo, was a victory. Especially for the younger ones, who care about the future of football. Older members, alarmed by the social club’s condition, lamented.

“By the contract, the company was obliged to keep the traditions: the uniform, the shield, the football. It would rent Javari and make reforms in the social structure of the club”, explains Ivan Antipov, president of the deliberative council and in favor of the sale.

AlmavivA would pay BRL 13 million for 90% of Juventus’ SAF (Sociedade Anônima do Futebol) and would own football for an indefinite period, including registration with the FPF (São Paulo Football Federation). He would rent the stadium on Rua Javari for R$50,000.

For the councilors who organized the opposition, it was a matter of rejecting an offer that they considered bad, but also of maintaining the customs of the association founded in 1924 and dear to most of the other fans in the capital.

They believe the football department should be professionalized, not sold.

“If you become professional, you will be able to sustain yourself. Tradition is not to lose football. If we had 51% or 50%, we would have decision-making power. That is the most important thing. Juventus is ours, the tradition is Mooca”, defends counselor Eduardo Pinto Ferreira.

Before the meeting, those in favor of the negotiation considered voting in the council as a matter of protocol. The sale would be approved. The issue was also to win the last step. The general meeting of partners had already been scheduled for Saturday (11) and would have to ratify the contract.

It ended up becoming a dispute for the soul of Juventus. From those who see football as the ultimate symbol of the club and who think that, without private money, maintaining it is almost impossible.

“They wanted to sell football for R$ 13 million. The only asset of Juventus is football. This narrative that they used to make the SAF viable, that it would be salvation, does not exist. of almost 11 thousand square meters. In their speech [favoráveis] was that the club is not in a position to invest. But did Juventus look for partnerships? Did not search. They embraced the first offer that appeared”, complains also opposing councilor Marcello Betone.

The club has debts of around R$11 million, of which R$5 million is short-term. The sponsorship of football in this year’s Serie A2 was from Hospital São Cristóvão. But the R$70,000 monthly paid was barely enough to cover the cast’s meals (about R$65,000). For the tournament, the Paulista Federation gave R$ 700,000.

The monthly revenue of the social part, before the beginning of the pandemic, was R$ 2 million per year. Today, it is around R$ 1.3 million.

“The problem is when the competitions are over. You have to dismiss everyone, pay the fine, and things start to get complicated. There’s no money from up here [da parte social] go to football. We are reduced to a few paying partners”, explains the advisor and former president Francisco Romanucci, one of those who tried to sew the approval of the sale.

Covid-19 also caused Juventus to lose important sources of income, with the ballroom (R$50,000 per event), the nightclub (R$4,500) and a smaller ballroom (R$5,000).

Despite the speech that the traditions would be maintained by AlmavivA (a company with no tradition in the sport), the guarantees given were considered insufficient by the opposition.

One of the complaints is that a company was hired to evaluate the club. It reached R$ 30 million, without exploitation of the Juventus brand, as initially planned, but later it was included in the contract.

“They offered less than half of the valuation, including brand exploitation, with R$1.3 million being paid to lawyers. Juventus would have R$11.7 million to be paid over five years. Is that a good offer? “, asks Ferreira.

The opposition also questions the payment of R$50,000 for Javari’s rent. They claim that the market value at Mooca would be R$ 220 thousand. It is said that AlmavivA has committed to maintaining its uniform, name and crest, but there is no guarantee that the team would not be taken out of São Paulo in the future.

“If tomorrow they decide to play in Acre, that’s it. And it’s a lifetime contract, right? Forever is a long time”, completes Ferreira.

“The sale was favorable. You need to see how much you save at Javari, for example. With a partnership, your expense drops to zero. $5 million to put out the fire. Then it would settle the rest in three years,” Romanucci disagrees.

“Honestly, without outside values, there’s no way to play football”, believes Antipov

In the opinion of those opposed to the sale, there is still a lack of jurisprudence in the model of corporation in Brazil and the question of how much the stadium is worth. Their conclusion is that the SAF is something very recent and that the future of an almost century-old institution like Juventus cannot be staked on something unknown.

There is also a reminder that of Javari’s 15,000 square meters, only 4,500 are listed, which would make it possible to seek resources in the remaining space. R$50,000 a month would be too little for a stadium worth, according to them, R$220 million.

THE Sheet tried to listen to AlmavivA, but no representative answered phone calls or responded to emails sent.

The multinational can insist on the matter, theoretically, but it will have to come up with a new offer and start over from scratch.

Until then, the same Juventus as the last 98 years will apply.

“Until now, tradition has won”, celebrated Marcello Betone.

Or, as Setor 2, one of the team’s organizers, sings, “eternal hatred of modern football.”