Despite having received a favorable opinion from the Advisory Council, which met on Tuesday night (6) and took a stand against the opening of an impeachment process, Julio Casares’ mandate as president of São Paulo is still at risk.
Formed by former presidents of the club and the Deliberative Council, the body is only advisory and has no power to remove or keep the leader in office. The decision is up to the Deliberative Council, which will meet on the 14th, starting at 6:30 pm (Brasília time), to decide the president’s future.
The meeting was called by the president of the council, Olten Ayres, after a group of 57 councilors filed a formal request for Casares’ removal in December.
Complaints about the alleged irregular sale of boxes at the Morumbis stadium and about financial transactions considered suspicious put the club’s already pressured president in the spotlight.
Casares had been suffering wear and tear due to criticism of management. In addition to ending the 2025 season without achievements on the field, São Paulo saw its debt grow and approach R$1 billion. Without resources for investment, the outlook for this year is also not seen as favorable.
Even given this scenario, members of the opposition are pessimistic about the possibility of the leader’s removal next week. In addition to the difficulty of gathering two-thirds of the votes of the 254 eligible councilors — a requirement set out in the statute —, the choice of the meeting date is interpreted as a strategy that favors the situation.
“January is a month in which you don’t vote at all. I learned this in politics. I was a councilor and I always heard people say: ‘if you want to do something bad, do it in January when people are demobilized'”, complains councilor Marco Aurélio Cunha, one of the main opposition voices currently in São Paulo.
There is concern among opponents that the meeting will be empty as it takes place during the vacation period of some of the councilors, many of whom are outside the city. The opposition needs at least 171 votes to approve the removal. There are also those who see the speed of the process as a way to prevent new negative revelations from further aggravating the president’s distress.
“Reaching 171 votes is difficult, but it is possible,” said Flávio Marques, an opposition advisor on the same ticket as Marco Aurélio Cunha and one of the signatories of the impeachment request. “Today, basically, the work involves conversation, practically one on one,” he added.
If the number is reached, a general meeting of members must be called within 30 days to ratify or reject the board members’ decision.
If the impeachment is approved, the person who assumes the presidency will be the first vice-president, Harry Massis Júnior, who will serve the remainder of his term until new elections are held, scheduled for the end of the year.
The request for removal is based on the allegation of “reckless administration”, with budget non-compliance in recent years, lack of transparency in the disclosure of the club’s accounts and irregular sales of tickets for boxes.
According to Marques, the process is “purely technical” and has no political motivation. “It is based on a series of failures by management,” he said.
In December, the website ge.com released audios that indicated an alleged scheme of clandestine ticket sales for a Morumbis box reserved for the president on show days.
After the announcement, Mara Casares, Julio’s ex-wife and then women’s, cultural and events director, and Douglas Schwartzmann, deputy director of grassroots football, stepped down from their positions.
In a statement, São Paulo stated that it “will carry out the due investigation of the facts” and that, based on this, it will adopt the appropriate measures. The club opened two investigations — one internal and one external, with independent audit — to investigate the case.
“What manager is this that didn’t know what was happening in his own backyard? Or, if he did, why didn’t he take action?”, asks Marques.
The information released by the UOL portal that the Civil Police is investigating the receipt of R$ 1.5 million in cash by the club president, in addition to 35 withdrawals totaling R$ 11 million made in São Paulo accounts, also weighed against Casares.
“Investigations are ongoing at the DPPC (Citizenship Protection Police Department), in secret from the courts, which is why the details are preserved to guarantee the autonomy of police work,” the Public Security Secretariat said in a statement.
Lawyers Daniel Bialski and Bruno Borragine, who represent Casares, stated that the financial movements highlighted in the Coaf report “have a lawful and legitimate origin, compatible with the evolution of the financial capacity” of the director.
They highlighted that, before assuming the presidency of the club, Casares held senior management positions in the private sector, with high remuneration, and that the origin of the resources will be clarified throughout the investigations, with the presentation of documents and tax declarations.
It was even with this investigation underway that the Advisory Council suggested rejecting the opening of the impeachment process.
Of the 12 members of the body, nine participated in the meeting. Only José Carlos Ferreira, president of the Deliberative Council between 2011 and 2014, voted in favor of opening the process, now in the hands of the members of the Deliberative Council.
