Ronaldo has bureaucracy and debt as his first steps in managing Cruzeiro

Reason for euphoria among fans and of great repercussion in the world of football, the purchase of Cruzeiro by former striker Ronaldo Nazário, announced this Saturday (18), still depends on bureaucratic adjustments and will require patience until its main practical effects begin to be senses in the Minas Gerais club.

Amid speculation, interviews by the Phenomenon and others involved in the agreement have already revealed clues about what should happen in the coming months.

As announced by XP Investimentos, the main mediator of the business, Ronaldo and the Minas Gerais club signed a protocol of intentions for an investment of R$ 400 million “over the next few years” in the newly created Cruzeiro SAF. This is the first operation carried out in Brazil under the terms of the new law of the Sociedade Anônima do Futebol.

First, it will still be necessary to make the purchase official, corresponding to 90% of the shares of the “new Cruzeiro”. According to XP, the transaction is subject to certain conditions, especially the verification of contracts and documents. Ronaldo himself highlighted this stage of validation, known as “due diligence”, in an interview given to his live internet broadcasting channel. This type of audit usually takes a few months.

“Now, after this announcement, we still have a bureaucratic process to follow. There is all the due diligence that will be done at the club so that we can understand what real situation he is in. And, from there, we will start planning the our work,” stated the former player.

After the change of status of Cruzeiro, approved on Friday, the lawyer for the celestial club, Bruno Volpini, had declared in an interview with radio station Itatiaia that the completion of a purchase like this would take four to five months. “It’s a very complex operation. It requires a clause-by-clause discussion in contracts that sometimes exceed a hundred pages.”

In addition, still according to radio from Minas Gerais, the closing of the deal also depends on the approval of two other members of the board of directors of Cruzeiro SAF, and not just the president Sérgio Santos Rodrigues. In an interview with ESPN on Saturday, the director said that he already considers Ronaldo the majority partner of the society.

“We really waved a binding proposal. The deal is consolidated. When we talk about bureaucracy, it’s this legal part. It’s a lot of contract to do, due to the very nature of the SAF. But the intention is already made, the proposal is binding, the we already consider Ronaldo as the majority. As of next week, the work together will begin”, assured Rodrigues.

The Phenomenon also signaled that work begins “immediately”. The star scheduled a vacation trip with his family to Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and promised to be present in Belo Horizonte for the celebrations of the 101st anniversary of the foundation of Cruzeiro, on January 2nd.

As the statement from XP already indicated, the contribution of R$ 400 million will not be carried out all at once. At first, Ronaldo’s investment, through his sports management company Tara Sports, will be R$ 80 million. For comparison purposes, the club collected revenues of R$69 million in the first half of 2021.

The forecast is that the initial amount will be used to resolve some emergency debts, with the main objectives of paying back wages since October and the end of the “transfer ban”, an administrative sanction imposed by FIFA that prevents the club from registering new athletes due to of the huge liability — the club’s debt is close to R$ 1 billion. So far, Cruzeiro has already agreed with ten reinforcements for the next season.

In the judicial sphere, before the creation of the SAF, Cruzeiro’s board of directors had already committed to presenting, by January 2022, a debt payment plan at the Regional Labor Court and at the Minas Gerais Court of Justice. Until then, ongoing executions against the club are suspended.

In practice, this means that fans must keep their feet on the ground regarding big signings and investments in the football department. The great objective of the celestial team is to assemble a competitive team to ensure the return to the first division of the Brazilian Championship after two consecutive failures in Serie B.

“Cruzeiro arrived in a situation, with high debt, very bad. I understand all the enthusiasm with the news, but the truth is that we have a lot of work ahead. I’m not going to put money in, burn money. The journey is long,” stated the Phenomenon. “The moment is terrible, but I see hope in the potential I have to reverse this situation and put Cruzeiro where it deserves to be,” he added.

According to Rodrigues, as the majority shareholder, Ronaldo is also linked to Cruzeiro’s global liabilities. “It is also good to remember the responsibility you have for the debt. The account is not made only for the investment, but for the assumption of all the responsibility that exists. The amount is much greater than the amount invested, he told Globo. debt remains in the association, a good part of it is linked to football.”

According to the SAF law, debts remain with the club, but the joint-stock company is required to transfer at least 20% of its current monthly income and 50% of profits, as a shareholder, to pay the association’s debts. civil.

According to the signed agreement, Ronaldo keeps the football operation, but the club keeps the equity and the remaining 10% of the shares, which guarantee him a seat on the SAF board of directors and the preservation of his identity.

Trusted Names

In his favor, Ronaldo highlights the experience accumulated over the last seven years as an investor and manager, first at Fort Lauderdale Strikers (United States) and later at Valladolid (Spain).

The Phenomenon gave several signs that it intends to bring people it trusts to work on Cruzeiro. At the Spanish club, for example, football management is under the responsibility of former defender Paulo André, with whom he played for Corinthians.

“We are going to optimize the group well, relying on the expertise of Valladolid and the people who are working with me. I actually trust a lot in the people I choose and want in the project. I give them freedom. What I do is give the direction of the project. that I want in the project. But I’m always very close. This will happen here at Cruzeiro as well,” declared Ronaldo.

On the billion dollar debt, Ronaldo also promises to adopt practices learned in the Old Continent. “It has to be sustainable. I’m going to take advantage of the experience, with the financial controls that exist in Europe. We have this know-how known from the Spanish Championship, which already has well-established rules and financial fair play. We are going to set up a European management model. “, designed.

For now, the sporting record of the teams managed by the Phenomenon is not its greatest asset. The Strikers, club of which Ronaldo was a minority partner, ended its activities in 2017. Valladolid, on the other hand, fell back to the second division of the Spanish Championship, after three seasons in the elite under his management.