Football regulation agency gives talk to clubs at FBF | OneFootball

Since January 1st of this year, clubs in Series A and B of the Brasileirão have been subject to a set of financial sustainability rules in the country. The initiative was announced by the CBF back in 2025 with the creation of Financial Fair Play in Brazilian football.

For this reason, the Bahian Football Federation, in partnership with the CBF itself, brought to Bahia a lecture from the National Agency for Regulation and Sustainability of Football (ANRESF). This independent body is responsible for monitoring, supervising, judging, and applying sanctions within the Financial Sustainability System.

This pioneering event brought together professionals from Bahia and Vitória, Bahian clubs subject to the new system, at the entity's headquarters in Lauro de Freitas (BA). Representatives from Londrina Esporte Clube also participated; the club belongs to the multi-club platform Squadra Sports, founded by the Bahian Guilherme Bellintani and headquartered in Salvador.

On the occasion, ANRESF directors clarified important points about the rules and answered questions from the clubs' financial departments. The administrative and financial director of the FBF, Marcelo Araújo, and the entity's accounting analyst, Jorge Danilo, also attended the event.

The Agency's CEO, Caio Resende, explained the objective of the financial fair play system in Brazil.

"Brazilian football today faces a problem very similar to what European clubs went through years ago. Revenues have grown a lot, but debt has also grown a lot. Even in a scenario of accelerated revenue growth, debt is still very high. This happened due to excessive investment in the professional squad. Clubs are investing far beyond their revenues, investing in signings they cannot afford. The objective of this fair play system is to allow greater financial balance for teams and competitions. A club cannot spend more than it earns."

The body is based on five pillars with indicators to monitor the clubs: solidity of commitments, operational efficiency, risk mitigation, fostering the future, and transparency.

Even with just over two months since monitoring began, ANRESF has already observed an improvement in the financial sustainability of the clubs.

"This transfer window at the beginning of the year was the first in Brazil under the financial fair play program and we have already seen an improvement. Clubs have already managed to reduce their expenses by 24%," Caio continued.

However, the CEO, who is also a Master and Doctor in Economics and director of the CBF Academy, stated that the agency's purpose is not to punish, but to help clubs in their pursuit of financial balance.

"The agency wants to be a partner to the clubs, wants to keep an open channel of dialogue with everyone, and avoid clubs being punished for not knowing the regulations," he added.

Caio Resende was accompanied at the lecture by fellow ANRESF director and former auditor of the Superior Court of Sports Justice for Football (STJD), Marcelo Mendes, and by the Agency's manager, Luciano Peixoto. During their visit to the FBF, the trio also met with the entity's president, Ricardo Lima.

ANRESF - The National Agency for Regulation and Sustainability of Football is composed of seven members with fixed terms, organized into two levels of jurisdiction: the First Instance panels, which originally analyze and judge the clubs' compliance processes, and the Plenary (appeal instance), which brings together all directors to deliberate on appeals and cases of special relevance, whose decisions are final and unappealable within the sporting sphere.

Among the possible punishments for clubs that fail to comply with fair play are public warnings, fines, revenue withholding, transfer bans, points deductions, relegation, and non-granting or revocation of licenses.

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