After the end of last year’s Brazilian Championship Series A, Fortaleza confirmed its presence at Libertadores 2025. Tricolor Cearense finished Brasileirão in fourth position, with 68 points, and qualified for the group stage.
At CNN Sports S/A this Sunday (23), Marcelo Paz, CEO of Fortaleza, said he was aware that the team is not a favorite to the title and revealed the difficulties of competing with astronomical budgets in the competition.
“Dreaming gives, dreaming is possible, it is allowed, but always with the reason, with the floor and knowing that football also has a logic. What is the logic of football? Almost and always, the biggest budgets are the ones that win, ”said Peace.We are not favorites. For example, we are not favorites in Serie A, in the Brazilian Cup, much less in. However, we already have a ballast in these competitions that allows us to dream, which allows us, perhaps, with the conjuncture, to be able to fight for a title. ”
Fortaleza will make its third participation in Libertadores, as it played in the competition in the 2022 and 2023, being one of the northeastern teams with the most participation. In addition to Lion do Pici, Bahia, Flamengo, Internacional, Palmeiras and São Paulo are the Brazilian representatives in the tournament.
Revenue difference
In addition to the good results on the pitch, Fortaleza has also stood out outside it. A study conducted last year by Sports Value, a sports marketing company, pointed out that Fortaleza is the second club with the highest evolution in Brazil in the last four years, with 150%growth.
Despite the evolution, the reality of the Ceará team is far from other teams, such as, who beat $ 1 billion in revenues last year.
“It’s a big challenge, it’s a permanent care of finance balance, because as you grow sportively, the fan charges more. We also have large competitors in Brazilian football who have a great capital force, ”he said. “All of this makes us difficult to have a slightly more limited budget, competes at a high level with those who really have much more money. But we can’t get out of balance, we can’t take a bigger step than the leg, we can’t do something that won’t be sustainable, because the bill always arrives. ”
According to Marcelo Paz, the Fortaleza budget scheduled for 2025 is R $ 370 million. The CEO bets on the management of the club to shine in Libertadores.
“We continue without debt. Fortaleza is a very equitable club. All studies of bank and consultancies that work in football see this in our balance sheet […] We have to be efficient. Efficiency is to do more with less and better. This is a board of the administration. So what are our valences? It is not the money. It has been a technical committee for a long time in the club, rapport, competitive team, Arena Castelão, especially in a competition like A, which has many knockout games. So we have to use our strategies and our tools, which is not having the biggest budget. We have to be good in other things, ”he said.
CNN Sports S/A
With Marcelo Paz, it reaches the 83rd edition. Presented by João Vitor Xavier, the program addresses the backstage of a billion market and is one of the most profitable in the world: sport.
On the agenda, the hottest subjects in the industry in the world of the ball, from the perspective of economics and business.
