In mid-2022, then president of Bahia, businessman from the educational sector Guilherme Bellintani was thinking about alternatives to deal with the historical debt accumulated over previous years, which reached around R$300 million.
Using the recently approved SAF (Football Public Limited Company) Law, he approached the Saudi City Group, owner of Manchester City and more than a dozen clubs on a global scale. After a series of negotiations and a year and a half of conversations, SAF in Bahia was sold, in an agreement that provides for investments of R$1 billion over a period of 15 years.
Upon ending his double mandate at the helm of the club, in December 2023 — winning the Copa do Nordeste and four editions of the Baiano during the period —, Bellintani used the experience acquired in negotiations with the billionaire Saudi group to create the first multi-club network in Brazil.
With five Brazilian teams already under the umbrella of Squadra Sports, a company created to manage the joint operation, Bellintani said that the intention is now to expand internationally, with a focus on Portugal, Uruguay and England.
The network’s first investment occurred in April, with the purchase of Londrina, which competed in Series C of the Brazilian Championship and the first division of Paranaense in 2024. A few months later, Bellintani also took over the operations of Linense, in Lins, in the interior of São Paulo, which is currently competing in Série A2 of the Campeonato Paulista.
Also joining Squadra’s portfolio of clubs were Ypiranga, a ten-time Bahian champion team at the beginning of the last century and today best known for its illustrious fans —Jorge Amado, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, João Gilberto and Irmã Dulce—, the VF4 from Paraia, founded by full-back Victor Ferraz, and Conquista, from Vitória da Conquista.
So far, the project has consumed around R$20 million, within a plan that foresees investments of R$150 million over six years.
The contributions were all made with own capital, but Bellintani opened a fundraising round to attract third-party resources, in order to continue expanding the club network.
The businessman explained that the return of the project must come from negotiating athletes. “Brazil is the largest exporter of players in the world, and today the structure for exporting athletes is almost casual. The clubs don’t have a job focused on this,” Bellintani said to Sheet. “Squadra wants to make money from athlete transactions.”
According to him, the clubs within the platform have different objectives, in search of complementarity.
In the case of Ypiranga, VF4 and Conquista, the focus is essentially on the base, with the prospecting of promising young people, with the ability to stand out professionally from other associations. The three should still join two more teams in 2025, in the regions of Goiás and Rio de Janeiro.
Londrina and Linense are the Squadra clubs focusing on adult football. The idea is to give players a chance to play and serve as a showcase.
Bellintani highlighted that, according to the model designed, the plan is not to hire medallions for the two main teams on the platform, but to invest in infrastructure, through renovations of stadiums and training centers, to offer good working conditions for the young players on the squad. .
The objective for 2025 is for Londrina to reach the Brazilian Series B and for Linense to return to the elite of the state of São Paulo. With more generous sponsorship quotas and TV rights, clubs can get out of the deficit they find themselves in and start to have a financial surplus, said the businessman.
He said that, due to a business opportunity that appeared in the market, he ended up bringing forward his internationalization plans.
The initial idea was to enter Portugal only in 2026, but there are already advanced conversations about the acquisition of a second division club. The operation is expected to be completed within the next 60 days.
Bellintani stated that the Portuguese club will serve as a showcase within Europe and will be a destination for players who stand out in Brazilian Squadra teams.
“When we sell a player from Brazil to Europe, he is sold for a certain amount. But, if the player spends one or two seasons in Portugal and does well, the sale can be for two or three times that amount” , said the businessman, adding that Portugal offers the advantage of not limiting the number of Brazilians.
The project also foresees the purchase of a professional club from the Uruguayan second division, in 2026, and one from the English second division, in 2030. The choice was made by countries that have legislation that, as in Brazil, is now open to investment of third parties in football teams.
For Bellintani, the arrival of the SAFs should help with the professionalization of football in Brazil. But he stressed that they are not the silver bullet that will solve all problems.
“No business model in the world is protected from bad, mistaken or amateur management, not even SAF”, said the businessman. “There will be very well managed associative clubs, and there will be poorly managed SAFs.”
