SAFIEL funds: How Corinthians will tackle transfer ban, Caixa debt

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Central do Timão

·7 Januari 2026

SAFIEL funds: How Corinthians will tackle transfer ban, Caixa debt

By Daniel Keppler / Central do Timão Editorial Team

On the afternoon of this Tuesday (6th), the creators of the SAFIEL project, which plans to establish a SAF to manage the Corinthians football department through an investment of at least R$ 1.6 billion in share sales, sent the club a supplementary proposal to the memorandum of understanding delivered in October last year, outlining the terms and conditions for establishing the operation.

According to the proposal, sent via email to President Osmar Stabile and the club's internal councils (Deliberative, Advisory, and Fiscal), the group would commit to helping resolve two important issues that have been widely debated internally: the transfer ban with FIFA, which prevents the registration of new players in men's football; and the club's debt with Caixa for the construction of the Neo Química Arena.

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But how would these two aids actually be provided? Central do Timão gathered preliminary details about the offer to contextualize how they would occur. The first, the transfer ban, would be resolved through a mutual agreement (a document used to formalize loans) with Corinthians, aiming to settle the financial debt with Santos Laguna for the signing of defender Félix Torres, which led to the FIFA restriction.

This loan would be made immediately after the signing of the memorandum of understanding by the board, and the money would be personally raised among the SAFIEL creators, with all necessary banking guarantees for the operation being duly provided to Corinthians. It is estimated that the club's debt with the Mexican club currently exceeds R$ 40 million.

As for the financial debt with Caixa Econômica, which is around R$ 650 million (according to the latest balance sheet released by Corinthians), it would be settled by the group through a financial advance, subject to certain conditions: the signing of the memorandum of understanding, the completion of an audit "without obstructive risks," and the approval of transforming the club's football into a SAF by the club's internal bodies.

According to information gathered by Central do Timão, these resources would also have banking guarantees provided to the club to ensure the operation is validated and would originate from private investors, both individual and corporate. Both the investment and the settlement of the debt with Caixa would be made even before the public offering of shares of the newly constituted SAF.

In both cases, that is, both regarding the amounts loaned to lift the FIFA transfer ban and the funds advanced by investors to clear Corinthians' debt with Caixa, the payment could occur in three different ways, according to the investigation conducted:

1 – Formal restitution, using the amounts raised by the SAF in financial fundraising after the share offering;

2 – Conversion of the advanced amounts into SAF shares, ordinary in the case of individual investors or preferred in the case of corporate investors, respecting the limits and constraints of the original project;

3 – Refund, made by Corinthians, in a scenario of failure in fundraising and consequent non-constitution of the SAF, with rates, guarantees, and deadlines to be negotiated between the parties.

Since receiving the memorandum of understanding in October last year, the Corinthians board has not officially responded to SAFIEL regarding the offer. Internally, the only movement around the proposal was its forwarding to the club's compliance department, which returned an analysis with some red flags, later responded to by the group through a statement on social media. A meeting with the board was also scheduled for November but was canceled and not rescheduled.

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