The morning of this Tuesday (25th) saw changes at Vasco da Gama. 777 Partners announced that Luiz Mello is no longer the CEO of the club’s SAF, a position that will be assumed on an interim basis by Lucio Barbosa, Cruzmaltino’s chief financial officer since 2022.
According to an official statement, Luiz Mello will begin his transition to an executive position at 777 Football Group on August 1st. Founder and managing partner of 777 Partners, American Josh Wander spoke about the exchange and tried to reassure Vasco fans.
“I want to thank Luiz Mello for his efforts over the last two years, especially during the club’s transition to the SAF. I also want to thank Lucio Barbosa, who will have the full support of our team of world-class professionals to guide the evolution of the club. Like everyone who cares deeply about Vasco da Gama, I want to see better results than we’ve seen so far this season. I would like to assure our incredible fans that everyone involved with the club is working hard every day to make them proud and I am confident that we will start to show better results soon.”
Luiz Mello’s work was questioned by the board and fans
Despite the official justification that the change is due to the departure of the former CEO of Vasco SAF to an executive position at the 777 Football Group, Luiz Mello’s work was not well evaluated internally. Two weeks before the departure took place, directors of the American group of private investments traveled to Rio de Janeiro and had meetings with representatives of Cruz-Maltino to deal with the bad moment. In recent months, the associative club, which owns 30% of SAF, began to question Mello’s work.
Luiz Mello’s story at Vasco begins in January 2021, when he became CEO of the club. Afterwards, he directly participated in the negotiations for the sale of the club to 777, announced in February 2022 and concluded in September of the same year.
777 decided to keep Luiz Mello as CEO, which was not well seen by fans and directors of the associative club, who began to criticize the “jumping of the wall”. The conflict of interest, however, was discarded by the American group.
Before becoming CEO of Vasco, Luiz Mello was a partner at Flamengo. With the team’s sequence of bad results in the Brazilian Championship, he became a constant target of protests in recent months and even received death threats, with a doll with the red-black rival’s shirt being hanged. At the time, Vasco issued an official note in defense of Mello.
777 Partners and Vasco vehemently repudiate the criminal acts committed against CEO Luiz Mello, to whom we provide our unrestricted support and solidarity.
It is unacceptable that these cowards who pretend to be fans hide behind their passion for Vasco and their anonymity… pic.twitter.com/egostm77UP
— Vasco da Gama (@VascodaGama) June 22, 2023
Currently, Vasco is the bottom of the Brasileirão, with only nine points conquered after 15 matches. One of the hopes of the fans to change the scenario is the possible arrival of reinforcements during the transfer window, which closes on August 2nd.
2023-07-25 16:16:00
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