The number can still increase, but almost half of the clubs that will participate in the A or B series of the 2022 Brazilian Championship are companies, have an approved SAF project or want to adopt it. Tournaments are due to start in April.
Of the 40 teams classified for the two main divisions of the country, 7 are already private companies and 12 have plans to become Societies Anonymous of Football under the law sanctioned by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) last year. Leaders of the other 21 say they do not have such projects or have not expressed themselves.
Lawyers specialized in the subject and entrepreneurs who prospect investors claim to have been approached by people interested in buying teams. This was even before Ronaldo became the majority shareholder of Cruzeiro, which made SAF a hot topic.
“I have two clients interested in investing. The image sold now is that the country’s football can change”, says Guilherme Decca, one of the owners of VO2 Capital, a company based in the United States that offers solutions in wealth management.
Decca already thought about putting money in teams in Brazil, but opted for England. Today he owns Wakefield, in the 11th division.
Despite thinking that it is possible to succeed, he believes that those interested in investing are now betting on an almost complete change in the structure of football. The entrepreneur is not so sure when or if this will occur.
“I’m not negative. I see it as an opportunity. But it’s innocence to think that Brazilian football is going to start flying from one moment to the next. These are complicated assets to restructure. Look at the big clubs. They need R$ 400 million just to make the ball rolls. The debt is over R$ 1 billion. There are clubs and clubs. I think that the very big ones, with a lot of fans and a lot of debt, are complicated to implement a long-term project”, he adds.
It’s something Ronaldo has felt first hand. When talking about how he found Cruzeiro after closing negotiations to take charge of the club, he said he finds a “negative surprise” every time he opens a drawer.
Among the A and B series associations, some rushed to forward projects and become SAFs. This is the case of Chapecoense and Coritiba, for example. Cuiabá, which was born as a company, did the same to find new investors.
“Our understanding is that all the big ones in Brazil will become SAF”, says the president of Atlético Mineiro, Sérgio Coelho. For now, the association has nothing concrete in this regard.
The two teams with the biggest fans in the country, Corinthians and Flamengo, totally rule out any plan to become a Sociedad Anónima. President Leila Pereira, from Palmeiras, also says there is no chance.
The change is very attractive for small teams, which can become trainers of athletes to be sold abroad. They can be attractive especially for businessmen who already have other clubs in different countries.
“We have five projects that are in progress and five more proposals. There are investors with an eye on the market and they will only invest in football if it is SAF. Before, this was also looked at, but there was no way to invest. I was a sponsor or lent money to the club”, recalls the lawyer Cristiano Caus, specialized in sports law and club consultant.
He recalls that there is another reality of Brazilian football outside the main divisions. There are several teams in the interior that, in practice, have been owned for many years. But it is informal, without legality.
“There are people who have been paying the costs for 10, 20 or 30 years and have no legal certainty. Clubs that already have this investor will formalize it. Those who don’t have it will create a structure to receive them”, he adds.
The hope of those who do not plan to transform is the same as that of investors who are thinking of buying: the creation of the league of clubs. Something that, for now, is just a project, but it can, in their view, increase revenue.
“We have a great perspective of getting out of this debt with the entry into the league. When you are in a balanced debt situation, the negotiation takes another level in case of sale. The club does not need to be sold to get out of debt”, analyzed in the year passed the president of Santos, Andrés Rueda.
Intermediaries seeking investors told the report that, until the model is established in Brazil, putting money into football will be a gamble. Structural problems will continue to exist for some time. The faith is that the entire model that supports the sport in the country will change. It’s not little.
“On the tax side, it is a very attractive model. There is specific taxation”, says tax lawyer Andréa Mascitto. She helped renegotiate Botafogo’s debts with the Federal Revenue.
For indebted teams (which is to say, almost all), the law is inviting, she reckons, not just because of taxes. Also due to the possibility of renegotiating the debts already contracted.
“In the first five years, it is a single tax of 5% and does not include player transfers. From the 6th year, it becomes 4% and will add the sale of athletes. But, even so, it will be a single tax. allow you to bring together all the creditors and they enter a queue of civil and labor payments”, he analyzes.
And there is also the novelty component. The image, true or not, of modernization.
“In the coming months, there will be many deals”, believes Caus.
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