December 2 – Cruzeiro have become the first big club in Brazil to shift away from non-profit status to a company model, allowing the club to sell shareholdings to new investors.
“Among the great challenges ahead of us, one of the biggest was to make Cruzeiro a club-company,” said Cruzeiro chairman Sérgio Santos Rodrigues. “It was a long job, from the first day of the administration, with dozens of meetings and meetings, many of them in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.”
This week he confirmed that the club had become a company after Cruzeiro’s general assembly had already approved the change in August. The ‘Asseciação Cruzeiro’ will now hold 100% of the stakes, but can sell 49% to investors from both Brazil and abroad.
In Brazil, clubs are structured as associations, not companies, and owned by their members. Most are still social clubs, with paying members and multiple sports teams, such as volleyball, rowing and basketball. As non-profit entities, clubs have no legal instruments to receive and repay investments, severely restricting their modus operandi.
Rio de Janeiro’s Botafogo, who have just gained promotion to the Serie A, has also been contemplating the company model. The reality and internal politics of Botafogo have so far prevented a change in the organisational model.
Rodrigues said: “And I repeat what I have said a few times, publicly: our job is to make Cruzeiro solid and balanced for our children and grandchildren. We remain firm in this purpose.”
In the Serie B, Cruzeiro, once the club of Brazilian playing legend Tostao, endured a torrid season, finishing 14th, just five points above the relegation zone, but the hierarchy and fans hope that the club-company model will now allow the once-proud outfit to balance the books and build for the future.
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