President Rodolfo Landim gives an interview to FlaTV - Part 1

The director spoke about several topics related to Flamengo

By Communication - Flamengo - in 31/03/2020 às 21:27

In an interview with FlaTV on Tuesday night (31), president Rodolfo Landim spoke about several topics related to Flamengo and how the club is facing the coronavirus pandemic. In the chat, the director addressed topics such as the calendar, professional team, Olympic sports, among others. The Official Website separates the interview into two parts so that the Nation can follow in detail.

Time at home

"We're trying to work using the tools we have today, video conferencing, and trying to avoid going to the club as much as possible. I still have to go in very exceptional circumstances. I'm also trying to enjoy spending time with my family, eating three meals a day with them, which isn't usually very common. I also always set aside some leisure time. We're having a movie session a day and trying to get some exercise at home."

Coronavirus

"We always pay close attention to what the authorities are saying, as it's important for planning the club's next steps. We're concerned about this entire process and the impact it will have. But we hope this will be resolved quickly with these tests and medications. May the infrastructure being built by the government actually yield results."

Brazilian football shutdown and calendar

"We are very concerned. We've called a strike. We also held a meeting with the other clubs about how the calendar will be handled. Everyone agreed to put all the players on vacation starting April 1st. They are high-level athletes and will need a minimum of training time before matches can resume. We expect to return in early May. Today, CONMEBOL asked us to postpone the resumption of matches due to the border issue, as there are still blockades. So we're trying, and ideally, we'll take advantage of these dates so we can finish the Carioca Championship. This is the biggest challenge we face: securing dates for all the championships to finish by the end of the year. There's already an agreement with the Serie A clubs that we'll finish the championships by January 31st."

Athletes' holidays

"When we put the athletes on inactivity, we give them a series of exercises so they can continue practicing at home. When they return, they'll be close to the shape they were in when they stopped their activities. This has all been monitored by doctors, physiotherapists, and fitness trainers, as they know each player and their history. Specific exercises have been assigned to each of them. When they return, they should be able to regain their fitness as quickly as possible."

Visit to Real Madrid

We were at Real Madrid and Barcelona, and the agenda was different. The main focus at Real was learning about their marketing structure and their relationship with the fans. We tried to learn how they work with club members, regular members, and paid members (who have reserved space in the stadium), which is a little different from what we have here. They have a category there called the Madridista, which aims to be a content channel for fans. We'll increasingly seek to do this at Flamengo, generating our own content for our fans.

Visit to Barcelona

"At Barcelona, what we focused on was more about football itself, but we also understood how they interact with fans, how they distribute products, how they build fan loyalty. We looked at how they structure football, and they have several similarities with us. I've been talking about it since the campaign days, and one of the things we promised was to get Flamengo back to playing the way the fans wanted, proposing the game, regardless of whether it was at the Maracanã or at the opponent's stadium. And that's Barcelona's culture, which they employ from the youth level. Barcelona isn't so concerned with winning titles at the youth level, but their biggest concern is that the youth level develops athletes."

Financial report

"I invite everyone to find out, even those who don't have much knowledge, but to at least read the initial part of the report, where we summarize our activities. Basically, we had a very good year, with significant revenue in 2019. Much of it was higher than expected due to the prize money. When we prepared our budgets, we didn't expect to win as many tournaments as we did. Much of that prize money was returned to our technical department and our players. And it was a difference in philosophy, as we made it clear to the athletes that we wanted to win the championships. We had a very aggressive prize money system. That's a good problem to have. We won in soccer, basketball, and rowing. It was an exceptional year, economically and sportingly."

Maracana

"We had 20 games at Maracanã this year, featuring Flamengo, Fluminense, and Vasco. Vasco would have had even more of a mandate if it hadn't had a basketball game at Maracanãzinho on the same date, which prevented the game from being played at Maracanã. The pitch was in pretty bad shape. Now we're in the process of restoring it. Maracanã was made available to be a coronavirus field hospital, but the decision made by the authorities is that the chosen area was actually the old Célio de Barros athletics stadium. That stadium was destroyed and is a very large and expansive area. From what I have, it was the chosen location for this hospital. We may have to give up a few things about Maracanã, but the perception of those who operate Maracanã is that this won't prevent us from playing at the stadium again when we return."