Former FPF chief's firm hits back after São Paulo fine: “Dedé approved” | OneFootball

The remnants of Julio Casares’ administration at São Paulo seem far from disappearing. The latest controversy to end up in court involves the cleaning company Milclean, whose owner is a longtime ally and former business partner of the president of the Paulista Football Federation (FPF), Reinaldo Carneiro Bastos, and which provided services to the club.

As AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR reported as early as the beginning of January, São Paulo was paying the partner company a hefty annual sum, but suspected that it was not meeting the required staffing levels set out in the agreement.

The contract requires a minimum daily staff of 96 employees from Monday to Saturday, and 95 on Sundays and holidays, but internal attendance records from December 2025 indicate that this number was not reached on any of the 31 days of the month.

The highest number recorded was 55 employees, and the lowest was 39, including on the 28th, a Sunday, when the club was especially busy.

As a result, Tricolor decided to go to court this Monday (23), filing a lawsuit seeking termination of the contract for cause, in addition to a fine of R$ 1 million, alleging that Milclean acted in bad faith, breached the agreement, and caused the club multimillion-real financial losses.

São Paulo tried to resolve the situation amicably with the company, demanding explanations for the agreed staffing shortfall. However, the parties did not reach an agreement, and the decision will now be left to the courts.

On Tuesday (24), Milclean responded through an official statement, claiming that the contractual adjustments were properly documented and approved by lifetime council member Antônio Donizete Gonçalves, known as Dedé, the club’s former social director.

Read Milclean’s full statement below:

“MILCLEAN GROUP vehemently rejects SPFC’s accusations against the company.

From the beginning of the contract, there was a renegotiation between the parties, approved by Mr. Antônio Donizete Gonçalves, who was serving as director at the time. New technologies were implemented and substantial investments were made in equipment as compensation for the labor shortfall.

The adjustments were properly documented and approved by him, and at the time he confirmed that SPFC would not have the financial means to take on additional costs. Even so, in order to ensure the contract was carried out excellently, we made the necessary implementations, which remained in operation until the final day of our service provision.

Throughout the entire period, we not only fulfilled all obligations, but also performed the activities with high levels of quality, proven by our satisfaction surveys and by the monthly evaluations carried out by SPFC itself. Consequently, all of our invoices were duly paid, without any complaints or possible deductions.

We also inform that, after the change in SPFC’s leadership, we tried several times to schedule meetings between the parties in order to reach a fair alignment, but without success. Even with the last three payments suspended, MILCLEAN GROUP acted in good faith and covered the salaries and labor charges of all its employees, including the supply of the materials and equipment necessary for the operation at SPFC, without any kind of dissatisfaction.

The signed contract was terminated without any prior notice from SPFC, leaving MILCELAN GROUP once again to bear all the financial obligations toward its employees. Once again, the company demonstrated good faith and settled the amounts due.

As for the legal proceedings, we have not been informed of them so far; however, if we are served, we will present our defense, providing all documents and evidence requested of us.

MILCLEAN GROUP will also seek payment from SPFC for the outstanding invoices. Finally, we reaffirm that there was never any loss, much less bad faith, on the part of our company. We reiterate MILCLEAN GROUP’s commitment to ethics and professionalism, represented by more than 8,000 employees over 27 years of history.”

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