May 2 – Fluminense are the latest Brazilian club to report rising debt levels in their 2023 financial year, now running at more than R$800 million ($156.5 million) in 2023. This is despite the Rio club reporting an operating surplus of R$78 million ($15.3 million).
In 2022, Fluminense registered a profit of R$7 million ($1.4 million), adding a further R$71 million in 2023.
However club debts grew from R$793 million ($155 million) in 2022 to R$822 million ($160 million) the following year. During the 2023 financial year, Fluminense received an installment of R$122 million ($23.9 million) from the sale of domestic TV rights from 2025 to 2074 as part of the Liga Forte Futebol do Brasil (LFF) group. The club said it will use that money to pay down debts.
“Our 2023 was a special year,” said club president Mario Bittencourt. “We reached our goal of conquering America sooner than we imagined when we started this journey, in mid-2019…
“Looking at the international trophies now immortalized in our history it is still little to describe the progress that has been made. Among them, the serious institutional situation that we found in Fluminense and that we are committed to reversing. This has been the subject of tireless work by our teams in recent years.”
Last year, Fluminense won the Copa Libertadores for the first time in the club’s history, defeating Boca Juniors after extra time in the competition’s final on home soil at the Maracana. The winners banked $18 million in prize money and a valuable ticket to the expanded Club World Cup in 2025 in the US.
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