This is a secretary linked to Olten Ayres de Abreu Jr, president of the club’s Deliberative Council
O São Paulo’s political environment reached boiling point again with the opening of an internal procedure, led by President Harry Massis Jr, to investigate a suspected ghost employee. It is about a secretary linked to Olten Ayres de Abreu Jrpresident of the club’s Deliberative Council and ally of former president Julio Casares, who resigned from his position after becoming the target of investigations by the Public Ministry.
A investigation is based no fate of Ivana Zavatti, employee registered as Administrative Assistant since February 2021, maintain a home office work routine, model that is not adopted by São Paulo and not attend the club’s facilities, whether at MorumBis or Barra Funda.
A information was first released by Ge and confirmed by Estadão. Olten Ayres was contacted by the report, but has not yet commented. The article will be updated in case of positioning.
One of The main signs of irregularity are the “flawed” timesheetreferring to the periods of January and March 2026. The report had access to the document and identified that the entry and exit records are filled in identically every day: starting at 8am, interval from 1pm to 2pm and ending at 5:48pm.
Documents also show that Ivana sends her attendance sheets to São Paulo HR via a corporate email external belonging to the private law firm of Olten Ayres, which raises the suspicion that she provides private services while being paid by São Paulo. The salary is approximately R$7 thousand. In light of the investigation, the tendency is for the employee to be fired.
Ayres is also the target of a request for removal by the club’s Ethics Committee, in an administrative disciplinary process opened based on questions about his performance. Voting on the topic is scheduled for the next few days and could determine whether or not the leader remains in the position of president of the Deliberative Council.
Lead changed
São Paulo politics have been boiling for at least two weeks, when Massis filed a request to remove Olten Ayres from the membership. The president accuses the leader of the Council of reckless management in his actions regarding the statutory reform of São Paulo, which was halted at an early stage.
The request was received by Ayres himself, as president of the Deliberative Council. He forwarded the request to the Ethics Committee, the same one responsible for indicating the recent expulsions of Douglas Schwartzmann and Mara Casares. He decided that he will not lead the meeting that will analyze the Ethics Committee’s opinion. Responsibility for conducting the meeting passes to the vice-president of the Deliberative Council, João Farias Júnior.
O group issued an opinion that disregarded expulsionbut suggested suspension of Ayres. The Deliberative Council will vote on the issue on May 12th. This month, the Ethics Commission also has a request for the expulsion of Júlio Casares, a former president whose accounts were rejected.
At the same time, Harry Massis Jr became the target of an expulsion request for reckless management. The document was filed by life advisor Carlos Henrique Sadi and was forwarded to the Deliberative Council and the club’s executive board.
O Expulsion request also cites alleged irregularity by Massis in the formation of the Board of Directors. According to the petition, the body does not currently have the minimum number of three independent advisors, as provided for in the statute, and could compromise the legitimacy of the collegiate’s decisions.. The situation was corrected by management with new appointments.
Different political groups even drafted a request for Massis’ impeachment, which did not advance. However, the case already outlines a possible electoral scenario, with former opponents of Casares and former allies of the former president (such as Olten Ayres) against Massis and other forces that maintained a presence in the administration even after Júlio Casares’s departure.
Note from Olten Ayres:
O President of the Deliberative Council of the São Paulo Futebol Clube, Olten Ayres de Abreu Jr., andclarifies that the employee who worked to provide administrative support to its routine has performed her duties since 2021, remotely since her hiring, with dedication to activities linked to the Club and subject to applicable internal controls, including time control.
His duties involved administrative and operational support to the President of the Deliberative Council, organization of the agenda, commitments and institutional demands. Any adjustments to personal schedules had exclusively logistical purposes, to avoid conflicts with the Club’s agenda and guarantee priority to São Paulo Futebol Clube’s activities.
Olten emphasizes that the existence of administrative support for the Presidencies of the Club’s bodies is not an exception, privilege or atypical situation. The Presidency of the Executive Board itself has the support of four secretaries, in addition to other institutional bodies that also have professionals for administrative support.
About using external emailthe President clarifies that the measure had technical, organizational and information security purposes. According to Olten, he himself does not use SPFC’s institutional email for certain sensitive communications, precisely to preserve confidentiality, traceability and protection of strategic information related to the Deliberative Council.
The President also states that, as far as he is aware, there was no concrete fact, functional note, administrative irregularity or objective element that would weigh against the employee.
In this context, the dismissal causes concern and cannot be analyzed in isolation. For Olten, the measure appears to be arbitrary, disproportionate and without reasonable justification, especially as it occurs after questions directed at his administrative routine.
The episode reinforces the perception that the dismissal may represent an indirect form of political retaliation for the institutional performance of the President of the Deliberative Council.
Olten reiterates that no employee should be penalized, exposed or terminated without apparent objective cause for performing duties with an institutional body of the Club, within a routine known since 2021 and subject to the internal controls of São Paulo Futebol Clube itself.
Finally, the President of the Deliberative Council defends that any administrative measure adopted by the Club observes objective, impersonal, transparent criteria and compatible with the governance principles that should guide the institution.
