Flamengo president slams exclusion, claims: "Libra sides with Palmeiras" | OneFootball

The president of Flamengo, Luiz Eduardo Baptista, known as Bap, made harsh criticisms of the Liga do Futebol Brasileiro (Libra) during an interview with the UOL portal.

According to him, the Rio club has been excluded from important decisions within the league, which, in the words of the executive, would be dominated by the interests of Palmeiras. “Libra is green. Libra is all green. Libra is Palmeiras,” he stated.

The rubro-negro president also denounced a possible conflict of interest within the league’s structure.

“(André) Sica is the lawyer for Palmeiras. His family has worked for Palmeiras for a long time, and the law firm that filed the appeal from Libra against Flamengo is Sica’s firm. That is a clear conflict. If I could go back in time, I would never have agreed to the creation of Libra. Libra is green. Libra is all green. Libra is Palmeiras. Sica is the lawyer for Palmeiras. He became the lawyer for other clubs. He represents other clubs that are in Libra.”

💡 Understand the "beef"

The crisis between Flamengo and Libra began at the start of 2025, when the Rubro-Negro requested a larger share in the broadcast rights contract with Globo, citing its weight in the market.

With no agreement between the clubs, the dispute ended up in court, and Flamengo managed to block R$ 77 million from the TV revenue. Since then, the backstage environment has been tense, with public criticism from Palmeiras president Leila Pereira.

🫵 More accusations

Bap responded to accusations that Flamengo was acting selfishly. According to him, this image was unfairly constructed by other clubs.

“I see this as much more of a narrative for the outside than a reality,” he said.

He also criticized the lack of discussions about the development of Brazilian football in Libra’s meetings.

“In these ten months that I have been in contact with the people from Libra, there hasn’t been a single meeting where any topic about Brazilian football was discussed,” he pointed out.

Finally, Bap lamented the stance of clubs like Palmeiras and São Paulo, which allegedly vetoed Flamengo’s participation in the integration committee with Liga Forte Futebol (LFU), another group of clubs discussing the future organization of Brazilian football.

“Who is selfish? Who is exclusionary? In reality, it’s other clubs that are exclusionary towards Flamengo,” he concluded.

🗣️ The response

Lawyer André Sica did not take long to respond to the accusations from the president of Flamengo.

In a conversation with Espn Brasil, André Sica, partner at the law firm CSMV Advogados, which represents several clubs both from Libra and Liga Forte União (LFU), responded to Bap’s statements.

“I am flattered by BAP’s words, but I imagine he doesn’t have access to all the information. My father passed away in 2001 and was an engineer. My mother is a French teacher. Therefore, it is not true that anyone in my family has worked for Palmeiras. Only I have that honor,” said Sica, before concluding.

“My firm works for more than 30 clubs across the country. I also have the honor of working for Red Bull since 2011, for Cruzeiro since the start of the SAF, for Bahia since the purchase by Grupo City, as well as many other giants, both from Libra and LFU,” he pointed out.

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

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