A bill presented to the Chamber of Deputies last Thursday, at the request of the National Club Commission (CNC) and the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), wants the 12-month freeze of the installments of the Brazilian Football Management and Fiscal Responsibility Modernization Program, the Profut.
Project 2125/2020 also foresees that, during the public calamity period by Covid-19, approved by Congress on March 20, the money collected from the Timemania lottery will be transferred directly to the clubs. Currently, the money is automatically transferred to the Revenue for debt reduction with Profut.
"This money can only be used to pay the cost of clubs with athletes' salaries of up to R$ 10,000 (US$ 1,790)," said Maia. "We know that 98% of the players receive less than that. The ceiling is to avoid criticism that the government is helping to pay Gabigol's salaries (Flamengo star), for example," points out the CBF secretary general, Walter Feldman.
According to Congressman Arthur Maia (DEM-BA), author of the project, the idea is that the amount should be used to pay club maintenance costs and salaries of up to R$ 10,000 during the coronavirus pandemic period.
“We put this ceiling on to avoid criticism and cause the bad impression that the Government is helping clubs to pay players' super salaries. Football is one of the most affected sectors of this pandemic, and accounts for almost 1% of the national GDP. It is necessary to save the Brazilian clubs at this moment,” said the deputy.
The bill was presented to the board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies last Thursday and, according to Arthur Maia, the intention is to approve the urgency of the procedure as early as next week.
If this happens, the bill can be voted on directly in plenary, without the need to go through any committee, which would prevent the process during the emptying of Congress by Covid-19.
Profut is a program for refinancing football's fiscal debts. Instituted in 2015 by the then government of Dilma Rousseff, it allowed clubs to have discounts of 70% of fines and 40% of interest, and to split debts for unpaid taxes within 20 years. In return, the teams need to keep up with their federal and labor tax obligations and provide transparency and publish their balance sheets.
Direct alternative with the Government
The Profut freeze during the coronavirus pandemic period via the bill is just one of the CBF and CNC options to relieve clubs' cash flow at this time. The other alternative would be a provisional measure from the Ministry of Citizenship - which houses the Special Secretariat for Sport - with the Ministry of Economy. And the entities are also working along this path.
Source: GMB
