Clubs’ debt doubled in two years. Brazilian football needs a fiscal law
World Cups leave a lesson that repeats every four years: it doesn’t matter where the star plays during the season – Premier League, Bundesliga, La Liga or Ligue 1 -, when the biggest tournament comes around he returns to the national team of the country that developed him. This logic places local clubs at the centre of everything. And that is exactly where Brazil stumbles.
The numbers that don’t add up
The revenues of Brazilian clubs grew 35% over the last two years. That sounds good. The problem is that spending advanced 40%, driven by a 140% jump in investment in signings. The result: the consolidated debt of national football went from R$7.8 billion in 2022 to more than R$14 billion this year. It doubled. In two years.
The pattern is old and destructive. An ambitious club president buys million-dollar reinforcements, wins a title, becomes an idol – and hands the club over on the brink of insolvency for his successor to sort out. This cycle has become the norm, not the exception.
The response: fair play, Brazilian style
To try to halt this cycle, the CBF created the National Agency for the Regulation and Sustainability of Football, the Anresf, as an autonomous body for financial oversight. The model is inspired by European financial fair play – the same logic that disciplined clubs in England and France. A kind of fiscal responsibility law for football.
Caio Resende, the agency’s first director, summed up the goal: to prevent revenues and expenses from following divergent paths as they have in recent years. Implementation begins with a transition period to settle old debts, with initially mild sanctions. But the path is set: poor management could cost points in the table – or relegation.
SAF: promises and contradictions
Since 2021, Brazil has had another model available: the Football Joint-Stock Company, the SAF, inspired by European experiences. The results are mixed. Cruzeiro reorganised its finances after the transition. Vasco da Gama ended up in court in a dispute with the main SAF shareholder. Botafogo became Brazilian and Libertadores champion after creating the corporate model – but was even put up for sale in a newspaper advert after turbulence at the Eagle holding, which controls part of the club.
In Série A, member-owned clubs are still the majority. Flamengo and Palmeiras, the most consistent teams in recent years, remain in this format. Among the SAFs are Botafogo, Cruzeiro, Vasco da Gama, Bahia and Atlético Mineiro, each at a different stage of maturity.
What is at stake
More than balancing the books, what is at stake is Brazil’s capacity to keep producing talent at scale. Without financially healthy clubs, the foundations weaken, youth academies lose investment and the pipeline of players for the national team suffers. The World Cup exposes the final product. But it is in the stadiums of the interior, in the under-17 and under-20 categories, that everything begins.
Anresf’s new rules do not solve the problem on their own. But they impose a brake that Brazilian football has never effectively had. It is a small step for the game, a necessary step for the country.
