Montenegro on Fla-Flu delay, says change doesn’t harm Fluminense

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·12 April 2026

Montenegro on Fla-Flu delay, says change doesn’t harm Fluminense

The president of Fluminense, Mattheus Montenegro, spoke through FluTV about the postponement of the derby against Flamengo, valid for the Brazilian Championship. In a video of about six minutes, the executive presented eight points to justify the club’s decision to accept moving the match from Saturday to Sunday.

According to Montenegro, the date change does not cause any sporting disadvantage to Fluminense.

Video OneFootball

“I think the main premise here is that changing the game from Saturday to Sunday does not bring any real disadvantage to Fluminense. I think the result we could have had on Saturday, we can have on Sunday. This changes absolutely nothing about what will happen on the field. What happened, and what many people criticized, is that Fluminense does in fact stop having an advantage over its rival because of a problem that happened in their logistics. And Fluminense, because of the greatness of the club, has never depended on any advantage from facing a rival from Brazilian football.”

The president also explained that the club was consulted both by Flamengo and by the CBF before the decision.

“Fluminense was consulted by Flamengo and by the CBF itself, which already had the approval of the Military Police and Globo. When it analyzed the request based on the premise that there would be no real harm to the club, it saw reasonableness in the arguments brought by Flamengo. Those of us who are involved in football know that it is very difficult when flights are delayed. Just this month Fluminense had a very similar problem in the match in Belém against Remo.”

Montenegro also commented on criticism from fans who questioned reciprocity between the clubs. According to him, the institutional relationship between Fluminense and Flamengo is positive off the field.

“A lot of people ask whether this was the best decision considering reciprocity. I can say that, throughout our administration, the relationship with Flamengo has always been very good and there have always been acts of reciprocity from both sides. The rivalry is very much limited to the pitch.”

Among the other points presented by the executive, he highlighted the club’s independence in institutional decisions. Montenegro cited as an example Fluminense’s position in the formation of Brazilian football leagues, when the club chose to remain in Liga Forte União while other clubs from Rio followed a different path.

The president also apologized to the fans affected by the change of date for the derby.

“Fluminense has a duty to apologize to the fans who were affected by the change to this match. A lot of people made plans to be at the Maracanã on Saturday and could not be there on Sunday. To those fans, Fluminense apologizes and will take all measures so that they are compensated.”

Montenegro also acknowledged a failure in the club’s initial communication on the matter and said the fans’ criticism is legitimate. Finally, he called on Fluminense supporters to back the team in the derby.

“I would like to ask the Fluminense supporters to trust, support, and embrace our team. We built a competitive squad and we are going to fight for titles. What matters now is that today is Fla-Flu. We need everyone together at the Maracanã to go for the win.”

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