The clubs were informed on Friday (29) at night that there will be a meeting to discuss the new league, on Tuesday (3), in the morning, in Sao Paulo. Many considered the deadline too short, but they accepted. When they arrived at the meeting, they received a copy of the law prepared by attorney Flavio Zviter.
The document was ready and was only to be signed and not discussed.
This infuriated most of the leaders present. Worse yet, is the discovery, according to what three of them were told a sheetthat the law does not foresee how resources will be divided when the league is implemented.
One of the top hats mocked the text of the report. He considered that he had received a “ready-made cake”.
Of the 40 teams in Series A and B, only eight signed the document on Tuesday: five from Sao Paulo (Corinthians, Palmeiras, Sao Paulo, Santos, Red Bull Bragantino), Flamengo, Cruzeiro and America-MG. Palmeiras president, Leila Pereira, arrived at the meeting declaring that she was there to sign, and would sign anyway, and whoever didn’t want to, should do so later. There were those who did not like the statement.
The Football Forte movement, which includes 14 teams, considers the creation of the league to be done from top to bottom. He complains that it’s not negotiations, it’s an imposition that I meant the clubs in Sao Paulo as well as Flamengo.
The fear is that these associations will subsequently be forced to receive more money than others, if the division is not provided for by law.
“Football Forte” consists of Atletico, Atletico Go, Atletico MG, Avai, Ciara, Curitiba, Fluminense, Fortaleza, Goias, Internacional and Juventus. Its leaders, especially the representative of Atlético, Mario Celso Petraglia, were the most competitive over the terms of the meeting.
One concern is that contract distribution will include pay-per-view, which has always been a source of controversy between clubs and Grupo Globo. Nowadays, each team receives a value that is theoretically related to the number of fans subscribed to the service. Since they have more fans, Flamengo and Corinthians could get a bigger sum. Palmeiras has been reluctant to sign a renewal of the existing agreement, which began in 2019 and is valid until 2024.
The position of the eight who have already joined is that the important thing is to create a political reality: to create the league and this will start the search for investors. For others, especially from “Football Forte”, it is necessary to solve all outstanding problems before anything else.
In The Club: How the Premier League Became the Richest and Turbulent Business in Sport, authors Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson explain how the principle that television contracts within the UK are shared equally between all clubs is laid out in the league’s founding document. International agreements are subject to other factors and the more popular clubs get a bigger share.
One of the proposals of the Brazilian League is that the difference in revenue distribution is that the champion receives 3.5 times more than the last place, with others between these two levels. It is a model that reflects La Liga, as the Spanish championship is called.
Another idea, “40-30-30”, is similar to what is currently in use in the contract with Grupo Globo. In this case, 40% of all collected will be divided equally, 30% by final rating and 30% within an equation that takes into account media presentation, streaming games and other variables.
Futebol Forte accepts this principle, but wants a 50-25-25 distribution.
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