In a meeting held this Monday (16) in Rio de Janeiro, representatives of the Futebol Forte group and other clubs in Brazilian football’s Series A and B defined a proposal to join Libra, the country’s new club league.
The meeting was marked by heated discussions and resentment with teams that have already signed with the movement that seeks to reorganize the sport in Brazil. According to officials interviewed by the Sheet who asked not to be identified, there is clear discontent with the way the new league got off the ground.
In the understanding of some clubs, the current signatories of Libra are trying to control the league. It caused irritation, above all, the fact that a part of them had already talked to Grupo Globo about the broadcasting rights for the tournament from 2025.
Lawyer Flavio Zveiter, one of those responsible for writing the statute, had a meeting with Paulo Marinho, president of the conglomerate, and discussed the interest in buying Libra games. The current television contract, which has Globo as the buyer, ends in 2024.
In a statement, Globo says that it will be open to dialogue with all clubs and in favor of new initiatives in Brazilian football, but that it has not maintained any formal negotiations.
“While there is an indication that the clubs want centralized negotiation, we will await the decision on the new league format and collective management of the rights of Série A do Brasileiro”, says the broadcaster.
The proposal defined at this Monday’s meeting mainly deals with the division of all the money that will be raised by the league with television rights, sponsorship quotas and other revenues.
The 25 teams that came together defined a model in the 45-30-25 format. In this case, 45% of everything collected would be divided equally, 30% according to the final classification and 25% within an equation that considers media exposure, broadcast games and other variables.
The format represents a reduction in the initial idea. In principle, Futebol Forte wanted the distribution to be in the proportion of 50-25-25.
The proposal is signed by the following clubs: América-MG, Atlético-GO, Avai, Ceará, Athletico-PR, Atlético-MG, Coritiba, Cuiabá, Juventude, Fluminense, Fortaleza, Goiás, Internacional, Chapecoense, Brusque, CSA, CRB, Náutico, Criciúma, Guarani, Londrina, Operário, Sampaio Corrêa, Sport and Vila Nova
On the side of clubs that have already signed with Libra, there is resistance to giving up the 40-30-30 model, similar to the current agreement with Grupo Globo. Leila Pereira, president of Palmeiras, is among the leaders who do not want to change this division.
However, there is already a movement, too, for the search for a consensus on the subject to move forward from this phase and start negotiations for the definitive creation of the league. The clubs have already hired a company to negotiate on their behalf and must have a meeting with all teams to address the issue at a date yet to be defined.
In addition to the alviverde team, Corinthians, São Paulo, Santos, Red Bull Bragantino, Ponte Preta, Botafogo, Vasco and Flamengo have already signed with Libra.
The search for a consensus between the two groups represents an advance on the tortuous path taken to create the league.
The disagreements started right at the first meeting held in São Paulo, at the beginning of the month. Several Serie A and B clubs said they received an invitation at short notice to participate in the meeting and, when they got there, they found a statute ready.
All were warned that the text should not be discussed. This deeply angered most of the leaders present.
Worse than that, was discovering, according to three leaders told Sheetwas to verify that the statute did 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”.
The movement “Football Forte” considered the action as an imposition of clubs from São Paulo together with Flamengo to take control of the league. The biggest fear was precisely a division of that cake so that these associations would receive more money than the others.
The position of the clubs that 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.
While they are already in the market in search of agreements and sponsorships, the clubs will still have a long debate about a proposal that could unite the 40 clubs in the Series A and B of Brazilian football.
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