XP Director celebrates Botafogo’s agreement with Crystal Palace partner

Entrepreneur John Textor, 56, a partner at Crystal Palace (ING), is very close to taking control of Botafogo. He and the club signed a contract that guarantees the North American priority in the purchase of the Carioca association.

Thus, Botafogo should leave the associative model and start operating as SAF (Sociedade Anônima do Futebol).

The deal was signed by Pedro Mesquita, head of investments at XP, on his social networks. Mesquita was the one who brokered the sale of the Cruzeiro to Ronaldo Nazário.

“I would like to congratulate Botafogo for signing an agreement with the group led by American John Textor! Another club that chose the path of professionalization,” Mesquita wrote on his Instagram account.

Like Cruzeiro, Botafogo has liabilities close to R$1 billion. The alvinegra team registered a deficit of BRL 139 million in 2020, according to its last balance sheet published in April of this year.

According to the GE portal, Textor should take out an immediate loan to make the club’s operation viable in the first half. However, there is no information regarding the value.

Textor, an executive in the media segment, holds 18% of Crystal Palace’s shares. He has also been interested in the acquisition of SAD (Sociedade Anônima de Desportos) from Benfica, in Portugal, but there was no agreement.

For Cruzeiro, former player Ronaldo will pay R$ 400 million and will control 90% of SAF shares. Of this amount, R$ 100 million will be used to reduce the most urgent debts, such as the transfer ban, applied by FIFA and which prevents the club from registering reinforcements.

The club-company model was created from a bill authored by the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (DEM-MG), sanctioned by president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in August.