Carlos Leite explains why he took Corinthians to court; see | OneFootball

One of Corinthians’ many creditors, as the club faces a serious financial crisis and has debt of nearly R$ 3 billion, businessman Carlos Leite explained why he took the club to court.

In an interview with ge, the agent for names such as Cássio, Fagner, and Renato Augusto said that outstanding financial issues related to his commissions turned into a snowball effect, since Timão kept making successive deals without paying off the previous ones.

“It’s not money I loaned. It’s (debt) in commissions. They’ve owed it for many, many years, which people also don’t understand. So in the end we get exposed. Like, ‘Corinthians owes Carlos Leite I don’t know how many million’ or owes agent X, Y, Z however much. They owe it because they don’t pay, because they made several deals. Very often we end up favoring the club you have the closest relationship with, and then you don’t get paid. So that just keeps snowballing, right?” he began.

Reproduction

“So the guy didn’t pay the first one. Then a little later he made another deal, didn’t pay, then a third, then a fifth, then a sixth, and it all stays there. At some point it’s going to blow up. And that’s what happened with some clubs, like Vasco, Corinthians, and today Atlético Mineiro. It happens”, he added.

Among the topics covered in the interview, Carlos Leite was asked by the reporters why he had not taken such action when Andrés Sanchez and Duílio Monteiro Alves were running the club, and he explained that his relationship with the Augusto Melo administration was complicated.

“Yes, of course, because the relationship I had with the club was a relationship... How can I explain it, one of trust. And I only did what I did with Corinthians, which many people don’t know about, because the president who came in (Augusto Melo, who was impeached) was not fair with me. Under the previous administrations, the non-payment to me wasn’t because they were being unfair. They don’t pay for any number of reasons, but they acknowledge what they owe”, he said.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Agência Corinthians

In 2024, Carlos Leite sued Corinthians seeking amounts exceeding 16 million reais. The amounts concern overdue commissions, brokerage fees, and image rights. That same year, the club was sentenced, but the parties later began negotiations to avoid financial freezes.

Trigger

The businessman emphasizes that the trigger for the escalation of the situation had to do with the deal involving Brax, the company that sells advertising boards at Neo Química Arena.

“I negotiated a contract for Corinthians with Brax for the rights to the advertising boards. Corinthians has an amount to receive over six years, and I agreed the following with the president: ‘Look, I’m bringing you this contract, for which I was hired, and I would like that if this contract is finalized, you pay me what you owe me over three years. You have six years to receive. You pay me in three. I went seven or eight years without being paid; you pay me in three,’ he explained.

“The contract between Brax and Corinthians was still under review. I made sure my lawyer included all the negotiations that had been made in the same contract so there would be no doubt of any kind. So we attached all the contracts, what hadn’t been paid, and that was done. But then an election comes along, the opposition wins, and the opposition approaches Brax and tells Brax not to consent to that contract, saying that if it did consent, the contract would be canceled,” he continued.

“What was being done there was an assignment of receivables from those amounts to pay over three years. So what choice did I have left? The guy is coming in, and in his very first move toward me, he doesn’t approach me, doesn’t talk to me, there’s no conversation of any kind. He simply goes to this company and tells them: ‘Man, don’t sign as a consenting party, because if you do, I’m going to cancel the contract.’ I had no other alternative. I had to file a lawsuit against Corinthians, something I had held off on all these years”, Carlos said.

“Oh, you didn’t sue Andrés, Duílio, or Roberto.” That’s true, I didn’t. Why? Because we were always in talks, they’d pay part of it, hold things off, and so on. When I finally manage to find a way by bringing new revenue to the club, with everything agreed, the incoming president threatens the company so it won’t consent. The contract on Corinthians’ side was signed, the contract on my side was signed. All that was missing was the company’s consent so the assignment could be made. I had no alternative. I had to go to court and collect,” the businessman concluded.

Current situation

It is worth noting that since March 2026, Corinthians has been paying monthly amounts set under the Centralized Enforcement Regime (RCE), and the debt to Carlos Leite is included.

The expectation is that in the first year Timão will allocate at least 4% of its recurring revenue to the program. The plan also establishes priority criteria for paying creditors and provides ways to speed up settlement, including a “preferential” classification for creditors as well as the creation of reverse auctions.

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