Flamengo president Bap on Leila Pereira, admits blame for tensions | OneFootball

Flamengo president Bap opens up about his relationship with Leila Pereira and admits his share of the blame for backstage friction

Flamengo president Luiz Eduardo Baptista, known as Bap, spoke about his difficult relationship with Palmeiras president Leila Pereira. In an interview on the Sports Market Makers podcast released this Tuesday (04), the Flamengo executive admitted he bears part of the blame for the clashes with his “counterpart.”

Right after that, the Rubro-Negro chief added a direct statement: “Flamengo and Palmeiras don’t need to be friends, but they do need to sit at the table and discuss business the way it should be done. As for the institution, absolutely nothing against it.”

WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON NEW LEAGUE NEGOTIATIONS?

This awful atmosphere between the two presidents, therefore, is directly holding back the creation of a new league in Brazilian football. Flamengo reached an agreement with Libra, while the Palmeiras board, in turn, pulled out of the group.

Bap laid bare the lack of mutual trust behind the scenes of the meetings. “Do you do business with someone you don’t trust, don’t know, and don’t have even a minimum level of admiration for? If I go to an event at your house and you treat me badly, why do you think I’m going to treat you well?” he began, before continuing:

“You schedule a meeting where you’re going to defend your point of view, but when the day of the meeting comes, you say you’re not going to stay for the meeting, but that you’re going to vote against it, knowing the vote has to be unanimous. The one who hits forgets; the one who gets hit never forgets,” he said.

IS THERE DIFFERENT TREATMENT BECAUSE OF GENDER?

The feud between the two executives took on even stronger dimensions with discussions about equal treatment at club meetings. The Flamengo president said, in effect, that he responds in kind and does not go easy on anyone.

“I’m not going to treat someone who is rude or disrespectful differently just because she’s a woman. If someone throws a stone at me, I’ll throw a stone back. If she wants to play the victim or throw a tantrum, she can. It doesn’t change anything for me. A lot of the time, you have personality clashes, and I think that’s what this is,” he said.

HOW DID REFEREEING INTENSIFY THE WAR OF STATEMENTS?

The rivalry between Bap and Leila, consequently, spilled beyond the pitch and into the realm of official statements and public jabs. Recently, the Rio club’s board published a text alleging favoritism toward the São Paulo club after Vitória had two players sent off in the same play in the Copa do Brasil.

Right after Flamengo’s statement, the Palmeiras president described the move as “an unbelievable nerve.” In addition, she once again brought up the final between Flamengo and Palmeiras, in which the Rio team came out on top, while the São Paulo side complained on several occasions about the refereeing.

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