Board members delay vote to "broaden debate" on Corinthians' statute | OneFootball

The meeting of the Deliberative Council of Corinthians, which was set to vote on the club’s statute reform this Monday at Parque São Jorge, ended without a decision. At the request of the council members, the meeting was suspended. The intention is to “broaden the debate” on the proposals of the draft presented about a month ago.

At the end of the meeting, the majority of council members approved the final decision. The consensus was that more time was needed to discuss some of the main terms in order to avoid a “statutory” reform being rushed through.

Six Corinthians council members spoke to the press about the postponement of the vote. They were: André Negão, Rubão, Jorge Kalil, Vinicius Cascone, Miguel Marques, and Rozallah Santoro. Of these, Kalil and Cascone even submitted requests signed by other CD members, calling for a broader debate. See below what the council members said:

André Negão

“The reform will be out by March. You can rest assured. There was no vote, it was unanimous, we needed to better discuss some proposals. It wasn’t discussed among all council members and associates, but it will be discussed now.”

Rubão

“There were some conflicting points. We thought it would be better to have a broader discussion and include all members and fans. The statute will be discussed in its entirety.”

Jorge Kalil

“Since it’s a draft with 145 articles, it couldn’t be done quickly or hastily. This needs to be thought through. It was very positive.”

Vinicius Cascone

“I was one of the authors of the request, but the Statute Reform Committee also submitted this request. I see it as a positive thing. Dr. Kalil and Felipe Ezabella also submitted requests in this sense, to broaden the debate. In my view, it’s essential that we open it up to the fans, members, and anyone who is a Corinthians supporter and wants to debate. The idea of holding public hearings is so that all interested parties can discuss the topics in a democratic way.”

Miguel Marques (president of Cori)

“Cori requested this change, and most of it was granted. We agree because the main objective is Corinthians. It was positive, Dr. Romeu Tuma agreed to give more time to study the topics, not to do everything at the last minute.”

Rozallah Santoro

“I’m leaving this meeting better than when I entered. We were very concerned about how the vote would be conducted. In reality, what’s being done here isn’t a reform of the statute. We’re eliminating an old statute and rewriting it from scratch. The statute has a series of decisions that affect other clauses. When you make a series of suggestions and try to put them all in one document, there are conflicts between the clauses. I think common sense and flexibility prevailed. It’s a necessary reform, with sensitive topics. There’s already a timeline and now we’ll face the challenge ahead. We want to reach the best possible conclusion, with a statute that brings us modernity.”

(Photo: André Costa/Gazeta Press)

Tuma disagrees

The president of the Corinthians Deliberative Council, Romeu Tuma Júnior, disagrees with the opinion of some council members. He believes there has already been enough time for discussions and claims that the new statute has been debated “exhaustively.”

“I respect the opinions, but I disagree. It’s one thing not to debate, another not to participate. We had the Committee set up twice, proposals submitted, and things were canceled. We’ve been debating for seven years. The last statute is from 2007. Obviously, there are new council members, and they can speak up. But this reform has been thoroughly debated. If you ask how many council members attended the public hearings, I’d say it was half a dozen. It was debated exhaustively, the Committee did a great job. There was and will be more debate. I respect every opinion, but I have the freedom to disagree. I preside over the Council and I know everything we’ve been through, we debated a lot,” said Romeu.

Cordial atmosphere

Despite differences, Gazeta Esportiva heard reports that the atmosphere at the meeting was “cordial.” Although Romeu Tuma Júnior publicly expressed his desire to complete the statutory reform by the end of this year, the CD president was “accommodating” to the requests of other council members and agreed to give in.

(Photo: André Costa/Gazeta Press)

Even leaders of the Gaviões da Fiel, the main organized supporters group of Corinthians, attended the meeting in the Parque São Jorge auditorium. Their presence was requested by the group and authorized by Romeu Tuma Júnior.

Next steps

Ten public hearings have been scheduled starting December 1 to discuss the main points of the new black-and-white statute (see the calendar). The proposals will be discussed in predetermined blocks, with topics to be announced soon. Specialists and external guests may participate in the meetings to enrich the debate.

After these meetings, the Corinthians Deliberative Council will meet again in February 2026 to vote on the project. If approved, the text will then be submitted to the members of Parque São Jorge. The General Assembly, initially scheduled for December 20 of this year, has been rescheduled for March of next year.

However, at the request of Romeu Tuma, it was agreed among the council members that the new statute will already be valid for the next elections at the end of next year. The right to vote for Fiel Torcedor will come into effect no later than the 2030 election.

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