XP wants to make a club league possible and sees a chance for a tournament to compete with the Premier League

Pedro Mesquita, 36, was in Belo Horizonte at the end of 2021, after the announcement that Ronaldo had bought Cruzeiro. That’s when he received a message from a fan asking him: what would you like to win as a gift?

It would be a thank you for the club, in dramatic financial situation, to have a new owner. The arrival of the Phenomenon meant the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mosque knew what he wanted.

“I asked for a Cruzeiro shirt, model from 1994.”

Ended up being taken care of. It was that season that he entered the field hand in hand with Ronaldo in a match for Alfenense, where his father was director, against the capital team, for the Campeonato Mineiro.

Twenty-eight years later, he sees a chance to change football. Graduated in Business Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, he is head of the Investment Bank at XP. The financial institution was responsible for attracting investors who bought Cruzeiro (Ronaldo) and Botafogo (the American John Textor).

Now XP intends to present to the teams a project already formatted and with a defined investor. The proposal is the creation of the league of clubs. An offer that can, according to Mesquita, change the level of sport in the country, internationalize it and, in the long run, make it compete with the Premier League, the most profitable national team tournament on the planet.

In an interview with leaf at XP’s headquarters in Vila Olímpia, south of São Paulo, last Wednesday (2), he showed optimism that sometimes seems as exaggerated as it is unshakable about the future, if the league gets off the ground.

“Everyone is skeptical until the deal happens. It’s already happening and football in Brazil will change. The league will happen and we want to have a project”, says the Cruzeiro fan. He believes that by the end of this year, more than half of the top 25 teams in the country will be corporations.

Folha: Have you been looking for clubs that can become SAF or have you been more sought after by them?

Pedro Mesquita: (Laughing) I’ve been most wanted. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to embrace the world and do everything because we have our business at XP and, honestly, due to the volume of money from the transactions, we do many other businesses that are bigger than these. [do futebol]. We are really trying to develop the market. We restricted it to a universe of 30 teams so that we can do a good job. There’s a hell of a club.

There are clubs that see the SAF project as a salvation.

We are in a unique moment in Brazilian football, not only because of the SAF. Our big project today at XP is to set up the club league in Brazil.

But what is the possible model for the league?

It is very clear that Brazil needs to stop being a country that exports players to being a country that exports its championship. For that to happen, there has to be an organization. A centralization of these negotiations and a model that will not be created. A model that worked outside Brazil will be replicated, especially in European leagues. Brazil does not have to invent the wheel.

Is this the Premier League model?

Both English and Spanish have very similar revenue management models. Of course, Barcelona and Real Madrid stand out in Spain for their very large size compared to the others, but if you look at them, the rules are very similar to the English ones: 50% [do dinheiro] divided equally, 25% variable according to position in the table and 25% according to other variables. The time is now. The creation of SAF brings professionalism to Brazil.

Is this professionalism the model of corporations?

Of course, the club does not need to be SAF to have an efficient management model, but if it is not SAF it ends up falling into the political system in which the president needs to be reelected and often those who try to be austere in cost control cannot get reelected because did not invest [no futebol]. It’s amazing how with little you can improve the situation of the club. Little thing I say is cost control, expense control. A club managed as a company will already bring a huge gain. We see this in our skin when we look at the transition between Cruzeiro and Botafogo.

There are those who are fanatical and in the end want to see the team win a title, but the team wins a title as a result of medium or long-term work. First, there must be sanitation in the club with efficient management. We can’t have a championship where we don’t have financial fair play, can we?

Does XP want to manage the club league in Brazil?

We have no interest in running the league and will not be a part of the running of the league in the future. What we want to do is format it, bring in the investor and so that the clubs can structure themselves. We are not a company that claims to be managing the league. We are interested in making it work and today we have the credibility of being a recognized company to be able to close these ends. The main tip here is to make a format with the trader and an investor. We are very close to that. We believe that by the end of this quarter we will have the project assembled, with the investor closed and the value of the alloy ready. In this way, clubs will be able to identify, evaluate this possibility and turn the tables on Brazilian football. By our calculations, clubs would triple their income from the club league in Brazil.

It is possible to understand a certain disbelief in relation to the league because there have been other attempts and nothing has happened. One of them was the Clube dos 13, which ended because the clubs fought for more money. Why would this time be any different?

Everyone is a disbeliever until the deal happens. It is already happening and Brazilian football will change. The league is going to happen and we want to have a project. Today I feel a desire to professionalize and have the creation of the league. The profile of managers has changed a lot. Of course with more clubs becoming SAF it [a perspectiva de criação da liga] will improve even more. But I’ve talked to other presidents.

What is the guarantee that a big club, which is not SAF, will not elect a president who has a different mentality and wants to change everything?

I think the possible success of Cruzeiro and Botafogo will make other clubs suffer internal pressure to also become SAF. It’s a natural process. In the end, the crowd is in charge. They [os dirigentes] they won’t handle the pressure. Of course the model has to be well made. That’s why we took great care to bring projects to Cruzeiro and Botafogo that have a long-term management mindset. Sportingly, the result may come faster or a little slower, but it will come because the weeds are very tall. [os problemas são muito grandes] and management gain is very easy.

If the applied model is that of Europe, the idea would be to sell part of the league to an investor. How much would the club league be worth in Brazil?

I do not know. But Spain’s league is selling 8.8% for €2 billion. We have to sell the lowest percentage possible for the highest value because the league will appreciate a lot. Every fund that comes in is going to want to make money, so we have to sell the lowest percentage for the highest amount.

But how is it possible to imagine the Brazilian league competing in the market with the Premier League, for example?

Brazil, in my opinion, in the long term, has more potential than English football. We form talents, they don’t form so many. Brazil exports more than 400 athletes a year. Imagine clubs investing more in the base, how many more athletes could they form? From 2001 to 2004, each Premier League game was worth £3.6m in TV rights. Today it is 10.2 million pounds per game (R$ 72.6 million). Why can’t this happen in Brazil? Clubs don’t hold talent, they don’t make a spectacle. So we need to form a show. This has become our big project today because we will continue to help clubs become SAF and find great investors.

What you say then is a project to export the transmissions, the image of the clubs and the matches of the Brazilian league, not the players.

Why do people in China wear Haaland’s shirt [do Borussia Dortmund] and not Flamengo’s? We are at rock bottom. Why XP wants to do this [a liga]? We want to do this because with the more professional system, we will do more club transactions. We created a market for buying and selling companies. This is what we do for a living. Football is a business. The club managed professionally and with more money, will make a stronger base category, will invest more in the boy, will lift more people out of poverty and will bring social ascension to these people. Do you want greater social work than this?

​How many Brazilian clubs will be SAF in the near future?

Let’s think that in Brazil there are at least 25 clubs with a good number of fans. I think we will arrive at the end of this year with almost half of these teams already being SAF.

It is interesting that in Brazil the investor arrives with the status of an idol. John Textor was almost carried on his shoulders by Botafogo fans at the airport.

This is pretty crazy. It’s the lack of fans who don’t see expectations for their team. Botafogo hasn’t won an expressive title since 1995. It’s good that Botafogo made this decision because I believe the project will work out very well. Whoever entered first will reap the rewards first, it’s normal in football. Textor went crazy over that unarranged reception, fans discovered (the flight number). Imagine this guy in Botafogo’s first game… This is an asset. Brazilians are engaged. Brazilians are one of the most engaged audiences on social media. Have you seen Brazilian team Twitter? It’s crazy. It’s a mega asset. Brazilian sings, makes tracks. I went to Belo Horizonte [quando fechou a venda do Cruzeiro] and they went to give me a gift. Not for Ronaldo. For me!