“Not the end of the world”, says Cuca on Santos image rights | OneFootball

Coach Cuca downplayed the delays in image rights payments to Santos players after the 1-0 loss to Deportivo Cuenca last Wednesday in Ecuador, in the opening round of the Copa Sudamericana. Santos’ board paid off part of the amount hours before kickoff, but some payments are still outstanding.

“We have to be balanced when talking about this, because it’s very easy to throw stones, right? Santos was hit with a transfer ban and had to pay in order to be able to operate in the transfer windows. Suddenly, that was money that would have gone toward these overdue image rights. The news leaked, they moved quickly, they’ve already paid at least one image-rights payment, plus the wages, if I’m not mistaken,” Cuca said.

“Is it normal? It’s not normal, but it’s not the end of the world either. We have to know how to live with this, show confidence in the directors and the president, and not let this become part of everyday life. As I always say, it’s better to be owed than to owe. If there’s money due, sooner or later it gets settled,” he added.

As confirmed by Gazeta Esportiva last Wednesday, Santos paid part of the overdue amounts to the squad. The club paid the regular salaries under Brazil’s labor laws, which were due last Tuesday, as well as at least one of the two overdue months of image rights. On April 20, another installment related to image rights will come due.

The delay in those payments had been causing discomfort among the players. So much so that last Tuesday, squad leaders met with Santos’ top brass while already in camp for the match against Deportivo Cuenca in Ecuador.

Santos sold left-back Souza to Tottenham for 15 million euros (R$ 89.7 million at the exchange rate at the time). Part of the amount went into cash flow, while the rest was used to settle the debt with Arouca, from Portugal, related to the signing of center-back João Basso.

Peixe was hit with a FIFA transfer ban and rushed to make the payment to the Portuguese club, settling a debt of around 2.67 million euros (R$ 16.1 million at the exchange rate at the time).

Sudamericana situation

With the loss to Deportivo Cuenca, Santos began its Sudamericana campaign at the bottom of Group D. Peixe starts the competition without any points, behind San Lorenzo-ARG (second) and Deportivo Recoleta-PAR (third), who drew in the group’s other match on Wednesday.

Santos’ next matches

Santos vs Atlético-MG (11th round of the Brasileirão) Date and time: 04/11 (Saturday), 8 p.m. (Brasília time) Venue: Vila Belmiro, in Santos (SP)

Santos vs Deportivo Recoleta-PAR (second round of the Copa Sudamericana) Date and time: 04/14 (Tuesday), 9:30 p.m. (Brasília time) Venue: Vila Belmiro, in Santos (SP)

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