The President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, signed this Tuesday afternoon, in a ceremony at the Planalto Palace, in Brasília, the regulations for TIMEMANIA, a lottery that will help Brazilian football clubs pay off their debts to the Treasury and alleviate, or end, the financial crisis they have been experiencing for some time.

According to Flamengo president Márcio Braga, Lula's signature represents a new moment in the club's history: "Our institution finally achieves the fiscal realignment that takes it out of the insolvency requested by the Public Ministry, through a public civil action within the Federal Court," said Márcio in an official note published on this website.

The club was represented by vice-president Delair Dumbrosck and idol Andrade, whom Lula referred to with admiration on more than one occasion. The president also appealed to Brazilian clubs to find a way to prevent the exodus of players abroad, something that is happening to increasingly younger youngsters, and suggested the creation of a working group to study this and other ways to improve the football played within the country and, consequently, the clubs' financial situation.

"Everything went as expected. Starting tomorrow, Flamengo and other interested clubs can go to Caixa Econômica Federal to register to participate in TIMEMANIA. For our part, we will contact Caixa tomorrow and hope that the first competition will take place in about 30 days. We are very pleased. We are certain that we have taken a very important first step towards making our club even stronger," said Delair Dumbrosck from Brasília.