"That bloke’s a son of a bitch": inside Casares impeachment vote | OneFootball

Even before the Board of Directors meeting that would remove Julio Casares from the presidency began last Friday (17th), the atmosphere already indicated the isolation of the former São Paulo leader. He arrived at the Morumbi's noble hall through the internal access, coming from his office where he had spent the afternoon, and sat in the furthest part from the main entrance. Beside him were only his two lawyers. Throughout the time, he kept his distance from the press that was following the meeting from outside and, after the voting ended, he left the place in the same manner, accompanied by his defense.

The start of the meeting was delayed due to an operational issue. Some board members who were physically present had also logged into the remote system, which caused confusion in the quorum count. It was up to the first secretary of the Council, Márcio Sayeg, to ask those logged in remotely to exit the system. Only after this adjustment was it possible to begin the proceedings, already with a quorum exceeding the minimum required of 191 board members. Initially, there were 168 present and 55 online, totaling 223, a number that would rise to 235 throughout the night.

In the speeches, the opposition dominated the space. Three board members in favor of impeachment spoke: Caio Forjaz, Flavio Marques, and Marcelinho Portugal Gouvêa. On the other side, besides Casares himself, only one board member spoke against the removal: José Rubens de Macedo Soares Sobrinho, which was notable due to the criticisms he had previously made of the management, even without having signed the original request.

Casares' speech lasted about 20 minutes and was classified as victimizing by opponents. “He victimized himself, talked about his family and the health problem he is going through,” said Caio Forjaz. “It’s not easy to be discovered overnight. The Council was betrayed, and we are just applying the statute. After all this time, he did not present an original document to the board members, only to the president.”

According to Forjaz, the president also attacked the “segmented press, which is after clicks and monetization.”

During the speech, Casares was close to Édson Lapolla, one of the most active opposition members, who was sitting near the podium. When he mentioned that “there are board members with legal issues” and “with children working at São Paulo,” he heard an immediate reaction from Lapolla: “That guy is a son of a bitch!” Casares retorted: “Come on, Lapolla, not that! You’re offending my mother!” Lapolla stood up and replied: “You really are a son of a bitch,” citing what he considered to be some reasons, but the discussion did not go beyond that.

The Council had prepared booths and physical ballots for the voting, but the plan was abandoned when it was decided to use the online system. Present and remote board members received a link to register their votes, which caused some confusion, especially among those less familiar with the platform, requiring mutual assistance to complete the procedure.

Behind the scenes, Casares still tried to avoid the impeachment, promising his allied base that he would resign if they voted against his removal. Apparently, it didn’t work.

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