Clubs complain that the league’s statute does not provide for how the money will be divided

The clubs were informed on Friday (29) at night that there would be a meeting to discuss a new league, on Tuesday (3), in the morning, in São Paulo. Several considered the deadline too short, but accepted. When they arrived at the meeting, they received a copy of the statute prepared by lawyer Flavio Zveiter.

The document was ready and was only to be signed, not discussed.

This deeply angered most of the leaders present. Worse than that, was discovering, according to three of them told Sheetthat the statute does not foresee how the division of resources will be made when the league is implemented.

One of the top hats made fun of the text to the report. He considered having received a “ready-made cake”.

Among the 40 teams in Series A and B, only eight signed the document on Tuesday: five from São Paulo (Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos, Red Bull Bragantino), Flamengo, Cruzeiro and América-MG. Leila Pereira, president of Palmeiras, arrived at the meeting announcing that she was there to sign, would sign anyway and whoever didn’t want to, should do so later. There were those who did not like the statement.

The movement “Football Forte”, which brings together 14 teams, considers that the creation of the league is happening from the top down. He complains that it is not a negotiation, it is an imposition intended by the clubs in São Paulo plus Flamengo.

The fear is that later these associations will force to receive more money than the others, if the division is not stipulated in statute.

“Football Forte” is made up of Athletico, Atlético-GO, Atlético-MG, Avai, Ceará, Coritiba, Fluminense, Fortaleza, Goiás, Internacional and Juventude. Its leaders, especially Athletico’s representative, Mario Celso Petraglia, were the ones who most contested the terms of the meeting.

One of the concerns is that the distribution of contracts would include pay-per-view money, always a source of controversy between the clubs and Grupo Globo. Nowadays, each team receives a value that, theoretically, is linked to the number of fans subscribing to the service. Because they have more fans, Flamengo and Corinthians can pocket a greater amount. Palmeiras was reluctant to sign the renewal of the agreement that is in force, started in 2019 and valid until 2024.

The position of the eight who have already joined is that the important thing is to create a political fact: the creation of the league and that would start the search for investors. For the others, especially from “Football Forte”, it is necessary to resolve all pending issues before anything else.

In the book “The club: how the Premier League became the richest, most disruptive business in sport” authors Jonathan Cleggg and Joshua Robinson explain how the principle that television contracts within the UK would be shared equally between all clubs and this was placed in the founding document of the league. International agreements are subject to other factors and the best-known clubs receive a larger share.

One of the proposals of the Brazilian league is that the difference in revenue distribution is such that the champion receives 3.5 times more than the last place, with the others between these two levels. It is a model that mirrors LaLiga, as the Spanish Championship is called.

There is another idea, the “40-30-30”, similar to what is currently used in the contract with Grupo Globo. In this case, 40% of everything collected would be divided equally, 30% according to the final classification and 30% within an equation that considers media exposure, broadcast games and other variables.

Futebol Forte accepts this principle, but wants the distribution to be in the proportion of 50-25-25.