With nearly two years of austerity and debt repayment, Flamengo has gone against the grain of many Brazilian football clubs by preaching and acting with fiscal responsibility. The club's revenue growth has been vital to maintaining this momentum, which has improved the Mais Querido's financial situation year after year. In an interview, vice president of finance Rodrigo Tostes provided further details on the matter.

"There's no point in dreaming without doing. We need to do it first to structure everything," he revealed. Flamengo has already reduced its debt from R$750 million to less than R$600 million in almost two years. The process wasn't easy and began with the foundation of any championship team: building a team, that is, a finance team with the expertise to seek renegotiations, prioritize the most urgent matters, and seek everything necessary to transform the Red-Blacks into a citizen club. All this culminating in titles like the Copa do Brasil, the State Championship, and others that the future always holds for the most organized institutions in the world of sports.

Toasts: We're working alongside a great team at Flamengo to take steps forward day by day. In fact, the first step before the audit was to create a team. We tried to work exactly like a soccer team, dividing the workload clearly among vice presidents so each person has a structure to manage their day-to-day activities. Many people stop me on the street to ask about my routine, dividing my time between my roles inside and outside the club. But that was never the theory behind the group, which won the elections in 2012. Our intention was to bring in a qualified team to carry out this work and choose a rejuvenated and fully structured team.

Toasts: The biggest challenge was figuring out the size of the hole we were in. Today, it's a much smaller challenge than when we arrived, which is balancing the passion of fans—the desire to build, to achieve, to see everything truly happen—with the financial hardship. Today we struggle with this, but the outlook is much better than the one we found: 2013 was a very difficult year, 2014 was too, but 2015 will be an easier year. The light at the end of the tunnel, unlike what we encountered, which seemed like a train, today we're certain is a sun. In 2016 and 2017, there will be money left over, and there's plenty of good news we'll have to share with the Red-Black Nation from now on.

Toasts: Yes, I expected it. The competence of the group assembled to work here, the profile of all the vice presidents who came, are of people who work in large companies, who understand that you can't just mess things up. And that there's no point in dreaming without achieving. We need to achieve first to structure everything. What I often say is that it's not the work of a hero. The great legacy that Flamengo's finance department will leave is that we have assembled a very strong technical team.

We were able to explain to other sectors of the club the importance of reviving the financial side of things in order to take the next steps, and slowly, we're making progress. We've had very effective results in Olympic sports, here at Gávea, where several areas have been revitalized, and in soccer. Some may not want to admit it, but the team won the Rio de Janeiro state championship this year and the Copa do Brasil in 2013. It's not possible to be in the top three or four overnight, given what we've encountered. But you can be sure that we'll make it happen, one day at a time, without a doubt.

It's crucial that we continue to maintain accountability and transparency... Today, we're one of the few clubs in Brazil that earns more than we spend. This is a lesson learned by every housewife and every company. Flamengo is now effectively fulfilling this principle. Our debt is decreasing, meaning we earn more than we spend.

Read also
Part 2 - Vice President of Finance: "The rule of the game is to pay the bills"
Part 3 - Rodrigo Tostes: "Our legacy is the return of credibility"