The Board of Directors of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo publicly expresses its repudiation of the irresponsible and false insinuations regarding the possible operations agreement with the Portuguese club Leixões.

The current administration understands that the size and strength of the Club's brand gives us the right to always think of an even bigger Flamengo.  

The electoral process cannot allow candidates to make irresponsible inferences or accusations, without any evidence or proof, and without even knowing the terms and conditions of the operation being negotiated.

It is important to highlight that the operation, as it has been planned, will result in a very different and more beneficial contract for Flamengo than the proposal presented in the past by Messrs. Rodrigo Tostes and Claudio Pracownik, when they led and were the biggest supporters of the project for Flamengo to acquire corporate control of another Portuguese club (“Tondela”). 

At the time, the purchase of Tondela would be brokered and advised by a company directed by Mr. Claudio Pracownik, and would require the payment of millions of Euros, of which a significant portion would be paid by Flamengo, and it was further agreed that Mr. Claudio Pracownik's company would manage the business for at least one year and would receive a high remuneration for advising on the corporate transaction and for managing the business.

The project that this Board of Directors has been negotiating for Leixões appears to be entirely different and more beneficial to the Club. The partnership being negotiated would place Flamengo as the club's administrator for three years, without the immediate acquisition of an equity stake. This would avoid directing any losses or liabilities of Leixões to Flamengo and eliminate the need for immediate payment to purchase Leixões' shares. 

This potential partnership agreement, which will be presented to the Deliberative Council (“CODE”) for approval, will grant Flamengo a potential purchase option after a three-year operating period. Likewise, the exercise of this purchase option for Leixões may or may not be submitted to the CODE by the Club's next president, after analyzing the results and due diligence that will be carried out during Flamengo's management of Leixões.

In other words, unlike the Tondela case, the Leixões negotiation does not involve any mandatory expenditure of funds to purchase the shares.

Once we have finished discussing the final points of the contract, it will be submitted to the CODE, which will be able to review and deliberate on this opportunity that opens up for Flamengo abroad.

Finally, we would like to express our view that, despite this being an election period, we cannot accept irresponsible and misleading statements from pre-candidates and their supporters. Such attitudes only serve to tarnish Flamengo's institutional image in the eyes of the market and our partners. 

People need to understand that Flamengo is much bigger than them and that every Flamengo fan should think more about our Club than their own personal interests.