Tri mundial clock to be launchpad for SPFC Bank relaunch | OneFootball

On the evening of this Thursday (13th), at a shopping mall in the west zone of São Paulo, São Paulo FC is launching a commemorative watch celebrating the 20th anniversary of their third world title. But, as AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR revealed, the commemorative piece is just the starting point of the partnership between the Morumbi club and Magnum, the company producing the product.

The São Paulo FC Deliberative Council will vote next Monday (17th) on whether to approve the new SPFC Bank project, which will be managed by Magnum Bank. The club’s Board of Directors has already approved the partnership, and it is expected to pass smoothly through the main governing body.

The possibility that the launch of the watch would mark the consolidation of the partnership between the club and the company for other ventures was raised by the report. And confirmed by sources within the São Paulo FC leadership to AMT. The original SPFC Bank was discontinued in April of last year (read more below).

The values of the agreement were not disclosed, nor was the contract duration, but there are variables for prizes and bonuses in the agreement depending on the fans’ participation in the initiative. Confidence is so high that the project is seen internally as being capable of becoming the main revenue generator for the club as early as 2026.

In addition to the new SPFC Bank, Magnum Bank will also appear on the sleeves of São Paulo’s shirt starting next year, with the possibility of promoting either the club’s exclusive financial platform or the group’s general platform.

Known for the watch factory that led the group, Grupo Magnum ended up launching its financial institution in December 2021, exactly two years after acquiring the SAF of São Bernardo, a team from the ABC region of São Paulo that has been climbing the ranks and fighting for promotion to Série B of the Brazilian Championship.

Led by businessman Roberto Graziano, a fervent Guarani fan, Magnum has previously sponsored the shirt of the Campinas (SP) club and even took over the social administration of Bugre in 2014, but the partnership was dissolved the following year after the Deliberative Council blocked the purchase of the Brinco de Ouro stadium.

To remain in football, Magnum ended up taking over São Bernardo.

Disagreements over values and changes in marketing strategies ended up causing negotiations between Grupo Magnum and São Paulo to fall through last year. The club even negotiated with a pharmaceutical company, but that also failed, and the spot on the uniform has been vacant since the end of 2023, when Bitso, a cryptocurrency exchange, chose not to renew its contract with São Paulo to continue occupying the space on the kit.

Currently, São Paulo raises approximately R$ 100 million annually from shirt sponsorships. A large part of this comes from Superbet, which in 2025 paid R$ 78 million to the club. The contract provides for an adjustment in 2026.

Recently, the club signed a contract with Cartão de Todos to sponsor the front hem of its shirt. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

In contrast, the club still has three vacant spots: the sleeves, as mentioned, the shoulders (vacant since Viva Sorte left in March), and the back hem (since Blue Saúde terminated the contract at the end of September).

THE END OF SPFC BANK

Quietly, in April 2024, through an email sent to fans who had opened an account with SPFC Bank, São Paulo announced the end of the project, a little over a year after it was launched.

The partnership with Logbank provided for the offer of banking services under the club’s brand, which were intended to serve as a new source of revenue.

With the brand registered in December 2021 and the contract with the supplier approved by the Deliberative Council in the same month, the project was first mentioned in January 2022, when president Júlio Casares discussed it in an interview with ‘Globo Esporte’: “Maybe, if I had told you at the beginning of my tenure that we could move towards having a digital bank, it would have been an adventure on our part to say that. Not today. Today, it’s a reality, which we will launch, if all goes well, in March.”

The deadline was not met, and the launch only took place on March 9 of the following year, after a final delay, as reported at the time by ‘Globo Esporte’. “We had to cancel due to delays in publishing the apps in the Apple and Google stores,” said Bernardo Biolchini, co-founder and commercial vice president of Logbank, to the portal. “The SPFC Bank platform is 100% operational, and we only postponed the launch due to the incident mentioned above.”

The partner had already been praised by marketing manager Eduardo Toni, in an interview with ‘Máquina do Esporte’, where he also spoke about expectations for the project: “There is a whole set of Central Bank regulations that must be followed, so we have a partner behind this. We really want to bring benefits to the fans. How do we make one thing talk to the other and benefit users of both platforms? We will offer this type of integrated service to the fans. We have high expectations for this, especially because our fans engage and buy into ideas.”

In fact, in less than 24 hours, the platform reached a thousand clients, and targets of five thousand and eight thousand registrations were announced, but the last update was three thousand, on March 20. The club did very little to promote the initiative, with most posts made on the supporters’ membership program account, which on Twitter has about 3% of the followers of the main account — which made some sense, since initially the bank was restricted to members. The last post was on April 24 of last year, a month and a half after the launch. In addition, many fans reported difficulties joining the bank or problems with the platform on social media.

Until 2021, there was a virtual account for São Paulo fans at Banco Inter, then the club’s main sponsor, but without the club being directly involved. Toni himself admitted that expectations were now higher. For comparison, Palmeiras Pay, launched by their rival in January 2023, recently completed one year, with five hundred thousand accounts opened, more than five hundred million reais in purchases in Brazil and abroad, and club revenue of thirteen million reais, according to ‘Globo Esporte‘. The Palmeiras bank also boosted the supporters’ membership program, as it offered up to six months free in one of the plans.

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