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While the Flamengo do not live their best days on the field, some club officials try to embody the idea of Sociedade Anônima de Futebol (SAF) behind the scenes.
During the celebration of Zico’s 70th birthday, this Friday (3), Rodrigo Dunshee, general and legal vice-president, spoke on the subject and opened the game about the possibility of the Rubro-Negro adopting such a model.
”There is no controversy. We are studying and talking about SAF. What I said the other day is that it makes no sense for Flamengo to make a 100% AFS from Flamengo, that it is better to continue as a 100% civil association, because from a tax point of view, we do not pay income tax. With that, it’s better to stay the way we are. In the future, if we receive an excellent proposal, we can even examine it, we are studying it,” she said in an interview given to reporter Isabelle Costa.
Dunshee also reiterated that Flamengo is in no hurry to implement the SAF at the club and said that the idea is for advisors and managers to continue debating the issue internally.
”We talk about SAF systematically. There was talk by Reinaldo Belotti. He’s already talked to investors to hear what they think, but that doesn’t mean we’re thinking of doing a 100% SAF for Flamengo, we’re not going to do that. It makes no sense to change the club’s corporate structure, pay taxes that we don’t pay today and not raise funds from third parties. If Flamengo thinks about it in the future, it will be to raise funds. Nowadays we don’t need it, we have this advantage. We are not in a hurry. Those who are less in a hurry and always leave it for the end, end up doing better than the others,” he concluded.
It is worth remembering that, since the creation of the SAF law, several clubs have undergone important transformations in their backstage and have become companies.
The most emblematic cases are those of Botafogo e cruisewhich were bought by John Textor and Ronaldo “Fenômeno”, and Vasco e Bahiawhich were taken over by 777 Partners and City Football Group respectively.
Fla, however, is in a very different situation from these teams, since it has a surplus, with annual revenues of around R$ 1 billion, and has its debt controlled, without being “strangled” with judicial charges and liens.
In recent months, other important teams such as São Paulowere also excited about the idea of SAF.
clubs like Corinthians e palm treeshowever, have said publicly that they have no intention of making the transformation.
