Corinthians board delays 2026 budget review until September | OneFootball

Corinthians will not meet the previously announced forecast of presenting the revision of its 2026 budget by August. The club’s board has decided to postpone delivery of the document until September. The information was reported by the portal Meu Timão.

The expectation that the new budget document would be made available last month had been announced in July. At the time, the financial department was contacted by the outlet after the publication of a report pointing out that the current administration had failed to comply with the deadline set in Corinthians’ Statute for updating the budget.

Photo: José Manoel Idalgo / Agência Corinthians

The rule is established in Article 120 of the Statute, which requires the budget document to be revised halfway through the fiscal year, that is, by the end of June. The provision calls for the financial projection to be renewed for the following six months, always maintaining a 12-month planning horizon, in addition to requiring a new review by the Deliberative Council.

Art. 120 - Each budget shall comprise revenue and expenses for a period of 12 (twelve) months. Sole Paragraph: The execution of the budget, from the time it comes into force through approval by the CD, shall be overseen by CORI, by the CD’s committees, and by the Fiscal Council on a quarterly basis, from verified financial statements, and annually, based on the audited balance sheet. Additionally, the budget must be reviewed halfway through the year and projected for another 6 months. Thus, every 6 months the 12 (twelve)-month planning horizon is renewed and the revised budget is submitted for new approval by the CD.

Behind the scenes at Parque São Jorge, the presentation of this revision has been awaited with growing attention. The club’s financial situation deteriorated over the first half of the year, as indicated by the monthly financial statements released during the period.

In June, for example, Corinthians had accumulated a deficit of R$ 246 million. The amount was 78% above the projection for that point in the year and stands in direct contrast to the forecast of a R$ 12 million surplus for 2026, established in the budget approved by the Deliberative Council in December of the previous year.

In a new contact between the club’s financial department and the portal Meu Timão, it was reported that the revision was not completed within the previously indicated deadline because the department focused its work on preparing and presenting the monthly financial statements. The material was taken to the Advisory Council (Cori) at a meeting held this Monday.

With this stage completed, the financial sector has now set a new forecast: the budget revision should be delivered during September.

This year’s delay, however, is far from being an isolated situation in Corinthians’ recent history. A survey of the behavior of the club’s administrations since 2020 showed that, in none of the fiscal years analyzed, was the budget revision delivered within the period determined by the Statute.

In 2020, the final year of Andrés Sanchez’s second term, the club’s financial planning was impacted by the suspension of football during the Covid-19 pandemic. The original budget had been presented in December 2019 and underwent a first revision, made two months later, with more favorable projections.

Even so, a new update was only made in September of that year, when the Advisory Council received and approved the revised figures.

In the next three fiscal years, already under the management of Duilio Monteiro Alves, the pattern of delay remained. In 2021, the updated version of the budget only reached the Deliberative Council in October and was approved on the 20th of that month.

The following year, in 2022, the board only finalized the revision in early September. The most extreme situation, however, occurred in 2023, when the budget was only reassessed in December, practically at the end of the fiscal year.

That delay led to remarks from both Cori and the Fiscal Council (CF) in the opinions related to the balance sheet, prepared the following year.

During Augusto Melo’s administration, responsible for only one full fiscal year, in 2024, the situation was even more problematic. The only budget revision that year took place in March, on the argument that the initial planning had been prepared by the previous administration. After that, there was no new update of the document.

In 2025, the year that saw Augusto Melo’s removal and Osmar Stabile’s arrival to the presidency, initially on an interim basis in May and later definitively in August, the budget was once again revised.

Even so, the history of delays remained. The Deliberative Council only approved the updated figures in early October, once again outside the period established by the Statute.

In July, the portal contacted the current presidents of Corinthians’ three main internal bodies to hear their positions on the delay in the budget revision. All three acknowledged that the deadline set by the Statute had not been respected, although they adopted different interpretations regarding the board’s conduct.

President of the Fiscal Council, Haroldo Dantas confirmed that the period for presenting the revised budget had ended in June. At the same time, he highlighted that noncompliance with this schedule has become recurrent in recent administrations.

As an example, he mentioned the 2023 situation, when the revision was delivered only after the political group responsible for Duilio’s administration lost the elections. Dantas also assessed that, if the current board really presented the document in August, it would be “positively distinguishing itself” from the previous ones and “breaking a strong paradigm.”

Miguel Marques, president of Cori, also acknowledged that the absence of the revision by June 30 represents a breach of the statutory rules. Asked about any possible action by the body in light of the situation, he said he would analyze the case and demand that the administration present the document.

Meanwhile, Romeu Tuma Júnior, who presides over the Deliberative Council, argued that the deadlines set by the Statute must be followed “strictly.” According to him, exceptional situations may allow for some flexibility, but he stressed that this should not be the rule.

Tuma recalled that he authorized the late presentation in 2025 after a request from the board, taking into account the institutional instability caused by the change in management over the course of that year. Even so, he classified this type of situation as something not advisable and said he may analyze the case within the Deliberative Council if formally called upon regarding the matter.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.