By Samindra Kunti
June 16 – Is revolution coming belatedly to Brazilian club football? Local top flight clubs want to establish a league governing body to run the Serie A and gain more of an influence in how the Brazilian game is administered. Currently the league is controlled by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).
On Tuesday, in a rare moment of unity, 19 of the 20 Serie A club handed over a document to the CBF, stating their intent to create a league structure as early as 2022. Brazil is the only top ten country in the world where the federation still controls the running of professional football at a domestic level.
The clubs said they will maintain the current promotion and relegation rules as well as respect the outcome of the current season. Interim CBF president Antonio Carlos Nunes attended the meeting with the clubs before excusing himself because he had personal business and medical appointments to attend.
“Understand that June 15, 2021 is the starting point for a new game in Brazilian football,” Bahia president Guilherme Bellintani told Globo. “The premises have been established. Union of clubs, common understanding of what needs to be done. The clubs have shown the maturity they have. The debate ran through last night, continued this morning. It was an important first step. We have no interest in conflicting with the CBF. Let’s keep discussing, we want to have more participation in CBF policy, such as equal weight of votes and the end of the political filter for candidacies.”
The decision was “due to several happenings that have been adding up over the years that reveal a total and absolute distancing” between the clubs and the CBF.
Brazil’s ruling body has been under immense pressure, ever since Conmebol moved the Copa America to the country at the eleventh hour with the backing of both Rogerio Caboclo, who has been suspended for 30 days from his role as CBF supremo over allegations of sexual harassment, and president Jair Bolsonaro, one of the last heads of state who insists on ignoring the Covid-19 crisis.
But the move by the clubs is a new blow to the CBF, which together with the state federations has long prevented any meaningful reform in Brazilian football, capitalising on constant division among the clubs. This time, however, a sense of change is palpable. The clubs want to prioritise the launch of a proper governing body for the league.
But reform won’t be easy. The CBF’s general assembly, made up of the 27 state federations, holds voting powers for major decisions. Clubs can only vote to elect the CBF president and vice-presidents and even so their votes have less weight.
The 27 federations carry 81 votes, the votes of the 20 clubs in Serie A counts. for just 40 and the votes of the clubs in Serie B have a weight of 1 (20). This week the clubs wants to address the concentration of powers in the hands of the state federations, who will not vote against their own interests. Article 24 of the CBF statute requires the approval of the general assembly for a league body to be created, which would mean the state federations voting to relinquish their own powers in favour of the clubs.
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