CBF rules to bring financial control to Brazil’s faltering clubs

Brasil shirt

By Samindra Kunti
January 23 – The Brazilian FA, the CBF, has presented new regulations for 2015 with the threefold aim to regulate and bring discipline to Brazil’s domestic football finances and create more transparency.

Brazil has South America’s biggest and financially most powerful league, yet last season no Brazilian club reached the last four of the Copa Libertadores, the region’s top club competition. For a long time, Brazilian club football has been marred by low attendances, corruption scandals and poor quality football.

The CBF now wants to highlight its institutional role as guardian of the game by exercising its legal and statutory powers by reminding the clubs to meet their financial obligations. The new regulations “pave the way for a profound renewal in our football” according to the CBF’s website.

The new rules will force Brazilian clubs to regularly comply to taxation regulations and to install an autonomous fiscal advisory body at the club. They will have to reduce operational deficits or losses and meet the terms of all their employment and professional contracts. Clubs must have financial statements that include data ranging from TV transmission revenues to ticket income.

If the clubs do not comply with their obligations, the new regulations foresee a range of penalties, including loss of points, exclusion from the league and relegation.

Brazil’s three major competitions kick-off later this year. They are not synchronized with the European football calender. The state championships will be played from February 1st until May 3rd. The national league starts seven days later and ends on December 6. The Copa do Brasil runs from February 25 till November 25 with a month-and-a-half pause in June and July.

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