Billionaire São Paulo? Massis board quietly seeks bank funding | OneFootball

A piece of news has been stirring things up behind the scenes at São Paulo since last week.

A billion-real investment proposal is said to have been presented. A major Brazilian financial institution was at Morumbi to formally express interest in making a large financial contribution.

The information was first reported by the portal ‘Tricolor na Web’ and later gained new details published by the ‘Blog do São Paulo’. Sources from São Paulo’s top ranks confirmed it to AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR.

The meeting was attended by club president Harry Massis, board intermediaries, and adviser Marcelo Pepe, identified as the one who brokered the approach between the bank and Tricolor and as a kind of right-hand man to the president, directly responsible for some of the current administration’s decisions.

The negotiations, which had been treated as a rumor on social media and in the club’s hallways for several weeks, took on official overtones with the in-person meeting.

Marcelo Pepe’s active role in handling the potential investor generated strong repercussions in São Paulo’s internal politics. Some believe it is a move to boost the standing of the ruling group ahead of the presidential elections at the end of the year, and that nothing concrete will happen.

Behind the scenes, advisers and members began speculating about Pepe’s name as part of major tickets in the year-end election. The deal’s broker began to be considered as a possible vice-presidential candidate both in a ticket supporting Harry Massis’s reelection and in a possible candidacy by Adilson Alves Martins, legal adviser and an influential figure in the ruling group.

So far, São Paulo’s board has not officially commented on the amounts involved or on the conditions required by the financial institution for the investment to go through. And the matter has been denied.

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