“I understood everything that happened to the club,” said coach Dorival Júnior, after Corinthians’s 0-0 draw with Cruzeiro, last Wednesday (23), at Itaquera Stadium. “There was the departure of a president, the arrival of another president, who had not yet talked to me …”
Therefore, it seems to be another.
Club members will vote on the 9th to impediment by Augusto Melo. He was withdrawn from the presidency in a vote of the Deliberative Council, on May 26, by 176 votes to 57, a decision that needs to be endorsed by the members at the General Assembly.
Augusto denies the irregularities pointed out to justify his removal – and made him defendant, denounced on suspicion of criminal association, money laundering and theft in the sponsorship agreement with the Better company Vaidebet. He promises to “fight to the end” to recover his chair-he has literally tried to sit on her, days after the council vote-but impeachment is worked out in the São Jorge Park Alases.
Corinthians, therefore, is experiencing a pre-election boiling environment. The statute of the association provides that, if there is a vacancy of the positions of President and Vice President, the Deliberative Council has five business days to elect a new board for a mandate buffer-until the end of 2026, when the agusto mandate would end.
The vote, confirmed the impeachment, will be made indirectly by the 299 members of the Council (200 triennial, 99 vital). This makes the campaign period different from what is usually seen in the club on the eve of ordinary presidential elections, which have voting from the partners. In such a restricted group of voters, “it’s all in the melee,” as one of the 299 counselors noted.
The scenario is volatile. In an entity in which the concepts of situation and opposition are quite flexible, it is unclear the design of which candidates will be in the event that Augusto’s impediment will be confirmed next month.
The influence of Andrés Sanchez, president from 2007 to 2011 and from 2018 to 2020, leader of the group that commanded Corinthians for 16 years is still great. But this group is today highly unpopular. Calling it can yield political capital and problems.
The issue well illustrates the protest made by fans organized last Thursday (24), at the gate of Parque São Jorge. There was a float for Augusto Melo and four others for the presidents of the group of Andrés, entitled Renewal and Transparency: Andrés himself, Mario Gobbi, Roberto de Andrade and Duilio Monteiro Alves.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the electoral race has as its center renewal and transparency. One way or another, the park’s paths pass Andrés.
Therefore, as the case was going in court, the case was sproured news over the period before Augusto Melo – that, at the turn from 2023 to 2024, toppled renewal and transparency, easy to triumph over candidate André Luiz de Oliveira, André Negão. Andrés and Duilio spent on the club’s corporate card, taken to the Ethics Council.
Andrés said he was confused when using the card with personal spending. “I assume my commitments, solve my problems and do not outsource responsibilities,” he published, before returning $ 15,000, referring to lodging, meals and boat trip, during a period in which she was licensed from the presidency in 2020.
Invoices also emerged from the period when Duilio was the president, from 2021 to 2023. GE report displayed a list of spending on the club card that included the purchase of erectile dysfunction medicines.
Duilio denied improper spending, said the notes are false and presented a criminal news. Either way, it is illustrative that the alvinegra electoral race has Tadalafila among its ingredients.
While the club fights to lift, the team suffers. The current president, the interim Osmar Stabile, was even the removal of Augustus a decorative figure, a vice president who fulfilled his electoral role before being shifted.
“We, the vice-presidents were away from management. We were not called for anything. We had no opportunity to know the situation of Corinthians,” said Stabile in May, as president, realizing that there was nothing in the cashier. “Drailed land. We have to pay, and there is no money.”
This month’s salaries of players and staff were paid late. Owner of the cast’s biggest paycheck, Dutch striker Memphis Depay missed training, telling the leaders and coach Dorival Junior the obvious: who did not receive.
There was then a punishment staging. The club published that Memphis apologized and was fined. On the field, like his companions, the Dutch has played badly. And Dorival complains that he does not have the reinforcements promised at the time of hiring in April.
Current debt is in their $ 2.5 billion, and cash flow problems are evident. In this scenario, Fabinho Soldado’s executive director, juggling to manage athletes who do not receive up to date and explain Dorival that the reinforcements will not arrive.
The team drags on, in inertia, in the 11th place of the Brazilian Championship. Meanwhile, the presidential candidates move, even if no one declares a candidate.
“I understand the relevance of the theme, but I believe that anticipating discussions can generate unnecessary noise before the definition of the facts. The moment is only for everyone to preserve the institution, without vanities and egocentrisms,” said Hero Vicente, one of the likely postulants.
Antonio Roque Citadini, who was leader of black and white football from 2001 to 2004, is another. “I know they talk about my name for two reasons: I never went from RT [Renovação e Transparência] And I didn’t support Augustus’s election, “he said.
There are other names. One is Armando Mendonça, who was the second vice president and became the first after Melo’s removal. There is also a current that advocates stabile maintenance; Under the logic: “We are already in chaos, better to leave the second president, not to switch a third.”
The third, in terms of Andrés, will be Sérgio Alvarenga, who was a legal director in his management. But a lot will happen until the vote.
