The economist Cesar Grafiettia specialist in sports management and finance, detailed the pillars and possible sanctions of the financial fair play which has been applied in Brazil.
Grafietti was one of the consultants hired by the CBF to develop the fair play model and is one of the directors of ANRESF (National Football Regulation and Sustainability Agency), a body created for the .
The economist explained that the one developed in partnership with the clubs is based on European systems with some adaptations to meet the country’s demands.
“Since the first of January of this year, there has been a restructuring and sustainability agency, which controls whether the clubs pay their debts on time, whether the debts are balanced. Whether the clubs are able to honor their payments. The objective is to ensure that whenever a club signs a player it is able to pay him,” he said.
“We are very excited that we will be able to apply the rules that were created last year here,” he added.
According to Grafietti, the first pillar of financial fair play is sustainability, which means that a club cannot delay any payments, whether to athletes, other clubs or payment of taxes and charges.
Possible punishments
If clubs delay payments, the system has a group of sanctions.
“You can be sanctioned from receiving a fine to suffering a transfer ban, which is the impossibility of signing and registering athletes, possibly losing points in competitions, up to being demoted”, listed Grafietti.
First, the debtor club receives a warning. If you continue without paying, the sanction becomes a fine and the next is a transfer ban.
“Then you will enter this sequence, suffer a transfer ban, you may suffer a loss of points, you may even be demoted in some competition, if during the process you are unable to put things in order, you are unable to catch up on payments that are overdue”, he explained.
The Brazilian Football Sustainability System came into force on January 1, 2026. Therefore, any debt acquired from that date cannot be delayed. As for previous debts, made until December 31, 2025, the clubs were given a period of up to 10 months for these liabilities to be restructured.
Reported clubs
According to Grafietti, there are two types of processes for determining debts. In the first, clubs inform if they have outstanding debts and, in the second, they can be reported. This complaint can be made by an athlete, for example. And these complaints have already started to emerge.
“There are two actions, which are even public. One against Botafogo, right? It was a complaint about Botafogo’s numbers, from last year. A process was opened about that. And another for Ponte Preta, which was information that we received from the press, saying that there were payment delays. So, there are two processes that are public. Now, there are other processes that must be forwarded from now on”, said Grafietti.
CBF committed
Grafietti believes that Brazilian financial fair play will not just be a rule “for the English to see”. The expert sees potential in regulation, mainly for two reasons: demand from the clubs themselves and .
“The process was built together with the clubs, right? So 34 clubs participated in the process of creating the regulations. And we first have CBF enforcement to say: ‘Do what has to be done because this is important for Brazilian football’. The clubs are aware that this will happen”, he explained.
“I think that now we have a CBF committed to making this happen, it has created a specific body for this and, again, I think there are many clubs demanding this type of action. Today Brazilian football is separated into two groups: a group of very well-structured healthy clubs and a group that is still in imbalance, with difficulties that end up hindering the competition”, he added.
CNN Esportes S/A
With César Grafietti, an economist specializing in sports finance and responsible for the “Convocados 2026” report, CNN Esportes S/A reaches its 140th edition. Presented by João Vitor Xavier, the program goes behind the scenes of a market that moves billions and is one of the most profitable in the world: sport.
On the agenda, the hottest topics in the football world industry, from the perspective of economics and business.
