A debutant in the Carioca Championship, Maricá Futebol Clube, founded in 2017, is the result of an investment by the political group at the head of the city hall that receives the most oil royalties in Brazil.
The city of Maricá, in the lake region of Rio de Janeiro, 55 km from the capital, has been commanded by the PT for 16 years. The party’s national vice-president, Washington Quaquá (PT), was mayor for two terms, from 2009 to 2016, and took up his third term in January.
The Quaquá political group says it wants to make Maricá the second most important city in the state in terms of economy and tourism, behind only the capital. In 2024, Maricá received R$2.69 billion for the distribution of royalties, according to a table from the ANP (National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels).
The municipal budget for 2025 is R$7 billion.
Maricá was the ninth municipality in the country with the highest percentage increase in population. It had 197,277 inhabitants in the 2022 IBGE Census. In 2016, in a phone call with Lula (PT), the mayor of Rio Eduardo Paes (PSD) called the city a “shit place” — the mayor’s current relationship with the city is good.
To make it more famous, the city council is investing in football and culture. In 2024, there was a literary fair with the presence of writers such as José Eduardo Agualusa and Valter Hugo Mãe. During Carnival, União de Maricá will parade for the second time in Marquês de Sapucaí, in the Gold Series, the second group. It is, by far, the furthest school from the Sambadrome.
Just like the zero-fare buses that run in Maricá — the “red ones”, managed by EPT (Public Transport Company), whose pronunciation in the Fluminense accent becomes “é PT” —, the team and samba school also remember the main symbols of PTism.
The Maricá Futebol Clube shield has blue and white stripes and a red star with incomplete points in the center. One of the uniforms is all red. The Maricá Union is red and white, with stars lined up. They are also the colors of the Maricaense flag.
Teams and associations have representatives in senior municipal administration. Arlen Pereira, president of Maricá, is Secretary of Government Management. João Carlos Birigu, executive director of the Union of Maricá, is Secretary of Human Rights.
“I am part of Mayor Washington Quaquá’s political group and I was given the task of organizing the school after the death of the previous president”, says Birigu.
União de Maricá received R$8 million in subsidy from the local city hall to produce the 2025 Carnival. The amount is nine times greater than what each school in the group will receive from Rio City Hall: it will be R$926,875 for each of the 16 Gold Series associations — including Maricá itself — totaling R$14.8 million.
The state government transferred R$8.18 million to samba schools, an amount divided between around 90 associations, including those that participate in the second, third and fourth groups, in addition to the evaluation group and the junior samba schools.
“In our first parade, more than 80% of the participants had never even been to Sapucaí and União de Maricá passed with a beautiful evolution, everyone singing samba. Quaquá, who is honorary president, will provide all the conditions and compete on equal terms with the schools in the Special Group, when we move up”, says Birigu.
Maricá Futebol Clube was founded with investments from Banco Mumbuca, an institution created to manage the social currency of the same name, a success in the city. Mumbuca was created via municipal law and receives an investment of R$18 million per month from the city hall, resources from royalties.
In 2018, Clube de Futebol Rio de Janeiro, which competed in the last state divisions, transferred its license at Ferj (Rio de Janeiro Football Federation) to Maricá, which was able to play professionally.
Maricá debuted in the fourth division of Rio de Janeiro football. He reached the Second Division in 2021 and was champion in 2024, the year in which he also won the Copa Rio. In 2025, he will compete in Series D of the Brazilian Championship.
In the 2025 Carioca, he debuted with a 2-1 victory against Botafogo, at the Nilton Santos stadium.
The city hall and the Mumbuca bank sponsored the team for a few seasons. This year Maricá has on its shirt the brand of Camarote Favela, a space in Sapucaí managed by Quaquá’s wife, Gabriela Lopes Siqueira.
Currently, the club claims to be self-financed through private sponsorships, ticket sales and player sales.
When contacted, the city council did not say how much it transferred to the club in the seasons in which it was a sponsor. The information is also not included on the municipal transparency portal.
In 2023, the João Saldanha municipal stadium was opened, where Maricá plays its games. The work was carried out by the municipal authority Somar (Maricá Works Service). The municipality did not disclose the value of the construction.
The stadium has capacity for up to 1,700 people and is named after the former coach of the Brazilian national team, who was also a sports commentator and member of the PCB (Brazilian Communist Party).
In January, Quaquá said that it plans to build a stadium with designs that would be signed by Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012). The idea is to increase the capacity of the current arena to up to 20 thousand people.
