In 2008, the current CEO of Manchester City and former director of Barcelona, Ferran Soriano, released the book “A Bola Não Entra por Acaso”. In it, the Catalan outlines the need to minimize errors in football, especially off the field, to try to control results in an uncontrolled sport.
Because Palmeiras and Flamengo have their doses of luck and bad luck. However, through planning, they increasingly increase their distance from others. The long term shows how Saturday’s final will put the best clubs of the century face to face, in search of Brazil’s unprecedented fourth Libertadores championship.
In 2015, Atlético Nacional, from Colombia, and Independiente del Valle, from Ecuador, made the final. I remember that year we debated the absurdity of a country like Brazil not having representatives in the decision — while more modest, but organized, clubs got there.
Ten years later, everything changed. Brazilian football has become what we expected it to be: technically and financially dominant in America. Brazilian clubs learned to make money by retaining fans, negotiating better television and sponsorship deals (the presence of bets gave a boom in this regard). And Palmeiras and Flamengo, in addition to learning to win, learned to spend very well.
Let’s look at the numbers to get an idea of what happened. According to the Convocados report, by Galapagos Capital, the revenue of Series A clubs doubled in ten years, going from R$5.2 billion in 2015 to R$10.2 billion in 2024.
The average attendance in the first division also follows the growth: of the six largest in history, five of them are the most recent (excluding 2020 and 2021, due to games without an audience during the pandemic).
We increased our revenue, fans started going to the stadium more. Brazil is able to fish for talent in South America and pays very high salaries to keep good players in the country for longer and attract those from abroad. Jorginho, Saul, Vitor Roque and Andreas Pereira have just arrived to reinforce the finalists.
The distance to South American competitors, in terms of economic power, is immense. The six Argentines who competed in the Libertadores in 2025 have, according to the website Capology, a finance specialist, an average annual salary of R$93.4 million per club. The average for the seven Brazilians was R$185.7 million. Double. And Palmeiras and Flamengo pay more to their squads than all Argentine participants combined.
As much as criticizing is one of our favorite sports, things are getting better around here.
All these numbers serve to show what we see on the field at each tournament. The Brazilians dominated the continent — while Palmeiras and Flamengo are one or two steps ahead. The strength is not just in earning a lot of money, because Corinthians is also capable of earning more than R$1 billion per year and bringing Memphis with a “European salary”. The secret is also knowing how to spend.
For the ball not to enter by chance, the margin of error must be reduced. Having Memphis in an unbalanced squad, for example, doesn’t help you much.
What makes Palmeiras and Flamengo reach their third final in seven years in 2025 — and give the feeling that they are already favorites for 2026 — is knowing what they are doing. Knowing how to make money, knowing how to spend and having a balanced football department set them apart from the rest.
It’s a cliché to treat a champion as a role model. The Botafogo of 2024 looks more like a roulette player trying his luck in a casino than a manager planning the safest route within such an insecure sport. Palmeiras and Flamengo look like this manager. Each in their own way teaches others how to compete today. The problem is that they teach, but they don’t expect. They increasingly open up an advantage and distance to others.
On Saturday we will have a balanced confrontation, in which luck or bad luck can be a decisive factor. When things are equal, the ball can, indeed, enter by chance. Overall, the duo shows that it is not.
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