Ethics committee backs Pinotti ban, could rock Massis succession | OneFootball

São Paulo’s Ethics Committee sent to the Deliberative Council a recommendation to suspend councilors Vinícius Pinotti and Fábio Mariz from the club for nearly a year over their involvement in the leak of the audio recordings that triggered the infamous VIP Box Scandal, in which two former club directors were caught negotiating the rental of an exclusive club space at Morumbi Stadium for Colombian singer Shakira’s concert in February last year.

The request for the Ethics Committee to review the pair’s conduct was made by Douglas Schwartzmann, former youth academy director, who appears in the recordings alongside Mara Casares, former social director. On Monday (3/30), the two were recommended for expulsion from the club’s membership. The Deliberative Council will vote on the matter next Wednesday (8).

The Ethics Committee’s final opinion was signed by rapporteur Antônio Patiño Zorz and approved unanimously. It recommends a 300-day suspension for Pinotti and a 360-day suspension for Mariz. The decision states that there was a breach of institutional duties and damage to the club’s image stemming from the way the recordings were obtained and disclosed.

Back in January, the third person investigated by the police in the case leaked to journalists conversations in which she appears selling the audio of the conversation with Douglas and Mara to the two accused men. Pinotti admitted he provided the money for the purchase and handed the content to the ‘Globo Esporte’ outlet, confessing that the goal was to “leak all that dirt.”

The vote on whether to approve the suggested punishments will now be scheduled by Council president Olten Ayres de Abreu.

If Pinotti is suspended, the outlook for the election to succeed Harry Massis Júnior at the end of the year will be thrown into complete disarray. That is because the councilor, a former football director during the administration of Carlos Augusto de Barros e Filho, known as Leco, is currently considered the overwhelming favorite to win the election.

THE COMMITTEE’S DECISION

According to the document, the councilors were found to have acted in coordination with third parties to obtain the material, in addition to discussing strategies for selectively disclosing the content to the press.

The committee concluded that the conduct went beyond the bounds of a legitimate complaint and caused institutional harm to São Paulo.

The report also stresses that, even in the face of suspected irregularities, the councilors should have turned to the club’s internal channels, such as compliance mechanisms and disciplinary bodies, before exposing the case publicly.

For the Committee, the decision to leak the material helped deepen the crisis and caused further damage to the club’s reputation.

In the body’s view, the conduct qualifies as an infraction for causing damage to the club’s image, with aggravating factors such as joint action and the case’s public impact. The decision also distinguishes between the roles of the two councilors, assigning greater seriousness to Fábio Mariz’s conduct, identifying him as a direct participant in meetings and coordination related to the material.

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