Corinthians unveil statute reform plan, Fiel Torcedor set for voting rights | OneFootball

The president of the Deliberative Council of Corinthians, Romeu Tuma Júnior, held a press conference at Parque São Jorge this Monday and presented the draft of the statute reform, which is already published on the club's official website. Among the main points of the document is the granting of voting rights to the Fiel Torcedor.

Three drafting proposals were formulated for this topic, represented in Article 21 of the draft. One of them states that the member must be registered and compliant with the Fiel Torcedor program for four years, in addition to paying a fee of 50% of the value of the individual patrimonial title membership fee of the club's headquarters.

“In Article 21, regarding the right to vote for the Fiel Torcedor, we have three drafting proposals. What is the difference? In the first, you will be in the Fiel Torcedor program and need to be compliant. The club will create a register that will serve for elections, the member will register and pay a contribution fee. After four years of paying this amount, they are eligible to vote. The second proposes charging the football member a fee of R$ 2,000 for the right to vote. The third is for those who do not want the Fiel Torcedor to vote,” explained Romeu Tuma Júnior.

How the voting will be

According to Romeu, the initial idea is that the most popular articles will be voted on in blocks. However, articles that open room for discussions, such as the right to vote for the Fiel Torcedor, should be voted on individually. Thus, the councilors and members will vote on the proposal that pleases them the most.

“I have been talking with councilors to create a block voting script. We can make a block of 50 articles that have no opposition. When it comes to this article [right to vote for FT], it will not be in a block, it will be voted on individually. The councilor and the member will decide whether to choose A, B, or C. Normally, the statute is voted on entirely in the Council and then in the General Assembly. We will change this dynamic, we will take block voting to the Assembly,” stated Tuma.

“A decision made only by the Council may not seem legitimate, I think we need to create mechanisms for these more complex decisions to be taken to the General Assembly, even if it is as a form of a second round. It's my opinion, I will try to build this kind of understanding. It's an attempt, it's not decided. What can happen is, if there is no understanding, we will vote article by article in an open vote session,” he concluded.

(Photo: André da Silva Costa/Gazeta Press)

SAF and more changes

In addition to the possibility of voting for the Fiel Torcedor, the draft includes other important changes to the Corinthians statute.

One of them is the possibility for the club to become a SAF (Sociedade Anônima do Futebol), provided there is approval from the Cori (Guidance Council), Deliberative Council, and members in a General Assembly. However, the document prohibits any possibility of external investors acquiring majority control of Corinthians. During the conference, Romeu Tuma Júnior spoke on the subject.

“Some people speculate that I wanted to make SAF unfeasible, nothing to do with it. There are several SAF models. I have been following it since it went to Congress, it's a subject that interests me. I am a member of an association I joined at two years old. There are several models, such as the SAF of the association itself. Corinthians can have its own SAF. If we manage to approve this reform, we will have a great path. It can be a model, respecting all models. I will never judge. Corinthians may understand that tomorrow we will have a SAF of the association itself, as is the case with Fortaleza,” he declared.

Other relevant points are: extending the mandate from three to four years for both presidents and councilors, the possibility of two-round elections, and holding leaders accountable for mismanagement.

Next steps

The draft still needs to be submitted to two votes to come into effect. Initially, the document will need to be approved by the Corinthians Deliberative Council, in a vote scheduled for November. In December, it will be the members' turn to ratify or not the DC's decision in a General Assembly.

If approved, the new statute will take effect immediately. However, the possibility of voting for the Fiel Torcedor is expected to be for the 2030 elections. The 2026 election is still expected to be restricted to the current model, considering a transition rule.

The Statute Reform Commission has been working on the text since last year. The draft was developed from internal debates and suggestions from external organized movements, such as Gaviões da Fiel itself, which advocated for the right to vote for the Fiel Torcedor. According to Romeu Tuma Júnior, more than 30 proposals were filed with the Secretariat and forwarded to the Commission.

The final report was delivered to Romeu on October 10th. The expectation of the Council president is that the new statute will be approved by the end of this year and come into effect at the beginning of 2026.

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