“It’s on me”: Pedrinho says sorry to fans, blasts 777, urges swift justice

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Papo na Colina

·19 August 2026

“It’s on me”: Pedrinho says sorry to fans, blasts 777, urges swift justice

Vasco president Pedrinho gave a long and forceful statement as the delegation boarded for Asunción, Paraguay, where the team will face Olimpia in the Copa Sudamericana. The club chief took full responsibility for the team’s poor sporting performance in the Brazilian Championship, where the club sits in 19th place, and apologized to the fans. In addition, the executive detailed the institutional and legal risks arising from the blockage of the R$150 million loan and blasted the role of 777 Partners in the Judicial Recovery process.

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Apology to the fans and taking the blame in the Brasileirão

During the interview with the Podcast Cruzmaltino channel, Pedrinho separated the football situation from the financial issues, making a point of shielding the squad and placing the full weight of the bad moment on his own shoulders:

“All of the failure is sporting, at least in terms of points, and the responsibility is entirely mine. I am responsible for the failure in terms of points in the Brazilian Championship.”

The president acknowledged the fans’ right to express themselves in the stands and reiterated his apology for the suffering of Vasco supporters:

“From the bottom of my heart, I apologize to the fans for this moment in terms of points. Neither I nor any player has the right to complain about the fans. Vasco fans have the right to everything, to complain about everything. And I am the one most responsible. I am the only one responsible. So I deserve all the criticism, every demand, every protest, because the responsibility is mine.”

Defense of signings and approval from oversight bodies

In responding to outside criticism of the SAF’s activity in the transfer market, Pedrinho drew a direct analogy with the rules of Judicial Recovery, arguing that the club has the right to strengthen the squad as long as it keeps payments to creditors up to date:

“That’s the analogy I want to make regarding honoring the commitments I have under the Judicial Recovery and, at the same time, making signings. Can’t I make signings because I’m in judicial recovery? What I couldn’t do was sign players and stop paying.”

The executive recalled that the entire planning process goes through the scrutiny of professionals hired and appointed by the courts themselves to safeguard the club’s financial management:

“I can’t even do that because I have a gatekeeper, I have a watchdog, and all of them are endorsing and authorizing every step of the process.”

The attack on 777 Partners and the warning about risks to personal assets

In one of the harshest parts of the interview, Pedrinho said he was surprised by the stance taken by 777 Carioca LLC in requesting an independent audit in court, pointing to the existence of internal and external forces that he says are acting against the definitive sale of the SAF:

“And what scares me, and I earnestly ask the judge to look carefully at everything that is happening regarding the institution, is that it all came after the people who left Vasco. I was removed from the chair, the bureaucracy surrounding the loan increased. And these loans, as I’ve said before, are not something I made up. The agreement between the investor, the future investor, and 777 is very well structured. And I’m very surprised that 777 Carioca requested an audit. A bankrupt company requested an audit. Who is behind 777? Who is behind 777?”

The president also revealed threats of asset losses resulting from a possible declaration of default if the operating funds are not released quickly:

“I was threatened with losing my assets and, obviously, if the loan continues to be denied, I will become delinquent. And delinquency, failure to pay creditors, is reckless management and automatically harms the legal judicial recovery process. As a result, my assets are frozen. And more important than that is the institution, because those people who left Vasco are not thinking about the institution. They do not want the sale. They do not want the sale.”

Reiterating his commitment to cleaning up the club’s finances, Pedrinho stressed that the agreements approved in the process are being fully complied with:

“We will appeal at every level regarding all the procedures. To make it very clear, everything that was agreed within the judicial recovery is being strictly complied with. And if there are no funds, all of these overseers—they are paid by us, appointed by the judge, obviously, right? The watchdog. They are paid by Vasco. So I need the necessary funds. And it’s not like this: ‘Oh, today I want R$150 million. Oh, tomorrow I wake up and want R$40 million.’ No. This is within a schedule.”

“So it will be paid. If I weren’t paying, I wouldn’t even be here, because I’d be chasing after my assets that I would have lost. But it’s not about that. It’s about the institution. They are harming the institution, they do not want the sale.”

Preference for the Maracanã and defense of Felipe’s work

Asked about the possibility of hosting future matches at the Maracanã, the club chief explained that the trend meets a logistical and technical request from the group:

“Yes, if no contractual issue arises along the way, we are entitled to some matches and the possibility exists. And, also due to the sensitivity, as I’ve already said, regarding the locker room, players, coaching staff, today the tendency is for it to be more Maracanã than São Januário.”

Pedrinho also came to the defense of director Felipe, who has been criticized by sectors of the fanbase, detailing the former player’s work routine and lamenting campaigns of personal wear and tear:

“Felipe is a quieter person and, because of that, people suddenly say: ‘What does Felipe do?’ Felipe is the first to arrive, one of the last to leave. Felipe has a technical evaluation role within a player assessment process. He knows Vasco’s DNA, he knows what the team needs. He talks with the coach, talks with the scouting department, evaluates the players, passes it on to Admar so Admar can conduct the negotiation. There is a whole process there.”

“And this rejection of Felipe happened because of a player I’ve already talked about, which was Capasso. It’s because of an issue with a YouTuber, whose name I won’t mention, out of respect and also to protect the person, because it’s not personal. The issue is the subject itself. And because of that, Felipe ended up being rejected. And they forgot that Felipe lost his father, who had passed away, his brother had also passed away that day, and they created this idea that Felipe does nothing, that Felipe is there just making money, that it’s some kind of scheme. That’s very easy to do.”

The emotional weight and the search for institutional stability

The president opened up about the personal impact of running the club amid political turbulence, stressing that his absolute priority remains preserving the institution:

“As for me specifically, when I win, I’m the best, and when I lose, I’m the worst. I know I’m not the best, and it is not my intention to be the best president in history. And nobody likes being the worst at anything. I don’t like it either. I suffer too. First, I suffer for the institution, for living through a bad sporting moment. Second, I know all the transformation that happened at the club, all the transformation that happened at the club. And whether that will ever be recognized one day, I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m not worried whether people will say: ‘Damn, all of this started with Pedrinho back then.’ I’m not worried about that. I just want people to let Vasco follow its path.”

“The sporting failure, which is my responsibility, is what they need to create all this turmoil. So, I’m just asking: there’s no need to think about me, about my assets, because it became personal. I want people to think about the institution. Leave Vasco in peace. Let Vasco follow its path. That’s all. Let Vasco follow its path.”

“As for being criticized, it hurts, because first of all I’m a Vasco fan, damn it, and I’m doing my best. And what hurts me is that my best, sometimes, is not enough. All I can do is work even harder, dedicate myself even more to get Vasco out of this situation. And that’s what I’m going to do.”

Finally, the club chief warned that the lack of speed in injecting capital through the loan puts the stability of the entire judicial restructuring plan at risk:

“Criticism. They are compromised, they are compromised. One of the objectives (of those trying to hinder Vasco) is exactly this: to compromise the judicial recovery plan, because it causes tremendous chaos, it causes personal chaos, as I said, since I was threatened, but most importantly, institutional chaos. I am worried about the institution. I am worried about Vasco da Gama, and that is what they should be worried about, regardless of any personal issue.”

“He is worried about Vasco. That’s why I ask the judge to look carefully, to listen carefully to what the gatekeeper said, what the court-appointed administrator said, what the watchdog said, with everything that is being done and restructured within the institution, and that as quickly as possible we can open the sale process, because this competitiveness puts an end to all the problems.”

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