Flamengo president says COB uses 50% of Agnelo/Piva Law funds for administration. Confao wants 30% of that for the training clubs.

Leandro Canonico São Paulo

Flamengo president Marcio Braga stole the show during the launch of the Council of Clubs Training Olympic Athletes this Monday at Esporte Clube Pinheiros in São Paulo. A member of the Confao board, the Flamengo fan spared no criticism of COB president Carlos Arthur Nuzman and demanded greater transparency from the organization regarding the allocation of funds received under the Agnelo/Piva Law. "I've heard that 50% of what the COB receives is invested in administration. Some people say as much as 55%. This is a scandal, a crime. The solution isn't very complex, but it needs to be investigated. Since these are public funds, we need to know where they end up," declared a visibly agitated Marcio Braga. "Given this figure, Confao intends to demand part of the funds, which comes from 2% of the total collected from federal lotteries in Brazil." Considering that 20% is sufficient for COB administration, the leaders of the clubs that train Olympic athletes will request at least 30% of the incentive law's resources. "If they work with 50% for administration, and a reasonable amount is around 20%, there's 30% left over. We'll further analyze and discuss how much we'll claim, but that could be it," said CONFAO president Sérgio Bruno Zech Coelho, also head of Minas Tênis Clube. "Another criticism of Nuzman's tenure at the COB concerns the Brazilian Olympic Awards ceremony, specifically the amount spent on organizing the event. "R$1,7 or R$1,8 million was spent, as reported in the press, on the COB awards ceremony last year. It's clearly excessive," said Márcio Braga.

The leaders of the major clubs that currently have Olympic athletes complained loudly about not being invited to the event. "At the 1,8 million dollar party, all the athletes eligible for awards were from clubs. And not a single leader was invited," raged Sérgio Coelho of Minas Tênis. Marcio Braga, a member of the meeting who spoke the most and criticized the COB the most, also took the opportunity to take a dig at Nuzman regarding Rio de Janeiro's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. "I have no doubt that the COB is more concerned with the resources it will receive for Rio de Janeiro's bid to host the 2016 Olympics than with the clubs," concluded the Flamengo president.