Tuma back as Corinthians council chief, urges unity on reform | OneFootball

Romeu Tuma Júnior, president of Corinthians’ Deliberative Council, announced this Monday (15) that he is returning to lead the body after a leave of absence. In a message sent to council members, the executive said he is resuming the position with the aim of contributing to institutional stability and ensuring progress on issues considered priorities for the club’s future.

In the statement, Tuma said that before returning to the position, he made a formal inquiry to verify whether there were any proceedings against him in the Deliberative Council’s Ethics Committee. According to him, there is no complaint or proceeding underway to support the allegations circulated in recent months about a supposed removal or possible pressure exerted on the board.

Photo: José Manoel Idalgo/Agência Corinthians

“Despite the speculation and interpretations publicly circulated since March of this year, there is no formal proceeding underway; in other words, there is nothing to support the claims that I had been removed or that I had exercised any kind of undue pressure on the Executive Board,” he wrote.

The executive also made a point of distancing his decision to return to the position from the recent court ruling related to the attempt to remove him. According to Tuma, the decision to end his leave had already been made beforehand and is unrelated to the understanding issued by the São Paulo courts last week.

The president of the Deliberative Council also rejected speculation about a possible interim rise to the club presidency during Osmar Stabile’s trip to the United States, where the executive is fulfilling institutional commitments with the CBF.

“I have absolutely no intention of assuming the club presidency during president Osmar Stabile’s trip while he is carrying out his duties,” he stressed.

In the same statement, Tuma pointed to two priorities for the Deliberative Council in the coming months: conducting the bylaw reform process and ensuring institutional normality during the presidential elections and the renewal of the Council itself, scheduled for November.

According to him, the current moment requires unity around the vote on the bylaw changes so that the General Assembly of members takes place in an orderly environment and with respect for the result at the ballot box. The Council president also called for efforts toward internal pacification at the club and for the full functioning of the Electoral Commission responsible for organizing the vote.

Meeting that discussed Tuma’s removal remains under court review

Romeu Tuma Júnior’s return comes just days after a São Paulo court decision found irregularities in the calling of the Deliberative Council meeting held on March 23, which was intended to deliberate on his removal from the presidency of the body.

At the time, Tuma was still regularly serving in the position, but the meeting was called directly by president Osmar Stabile, in a procedure challenged by the Council’s Justice Committee and Ethics and Discipline Committee on the grounds that it violated the bylaws. Later, the executive chose to take a leave of absence from the presidency of the body, arguing that the measure was intended to prevent him from becoming the center of discussions and compromising the progress of debates related to the club’s bylaw reform.

In ruling on the merits of the case, the judge of the 1st Public Registries Court of the Capital concluded that the calling of the meeting did not follow the procedure established by Corinthians’ bylaws. In the ruling issued last Friday (12), the judge found that the authority provided for in article 112, item 6, must be exercised through the procedure described in article 82, subsection II, letter “b,” and not independently by the Presidency of the Board.

The decision stated that, if president Osmar Stabile had the authority to directly call meetings of the Deliberative Council, there would be no justification for the existence of a specific bylaw provision conditioning that initiative on the submission of a reasoned request to the president of the collegiate body. Given the absence of this prior procedure, the judge concluded that the calling of the meeting was null and void, and consequently annulled the acts resulting from it.

After the ruling was published, however, judge Luciana Carone Nucci Eugênio Mahuad understood that the decision could not have been issued before Corinthians, an interested party in the case, had formally presented its position. For that reason, she ordered the suspension of the effects of the ruling and instructed the club to provide clarifications within ten days.

Next, according to information from Gazeta Esportiva, the case file will be sent to the São Paulo Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP-SP) for an opinion, and only after these steps will the judge decide whether or not to uphold the understanding previously presented regarding the validity of the Deliberative Council meeting held on March 23.

Despite the suspension of the effects of the ruling, the reasoning set out in the June 12 decision remains on the record. In it, the judge pointed out that the calling of the meeting did not follow the procedure provided for in Corinthians’ bylaws, an understanding that had already previously been defended by internal club bodies such as the Justice Committee and the Deliberative Council’s Ethics Committee.

Tuma sees confirmation of an understanding already adopted internally

In contact with Central do Timão, Romeu Tuma Júnior said he fully respects the court decision and stressed that the suspension of the effects of the ruling occurred only as a procedural precaution.

“I fully respect the decision issued by the judge of the 1st Public Registries Court of the Capital, who, purely out of a duty of caution, decided to suspend the June 12 ruling so that a formality under the Public Registries Law can be complied with,” he said.

He then stated that the formal issue does not alter the conclusions already reached by the judge.

“This fact is not capable of changing the conclusions reached in the ruling, which recognized the existence of already consummated formal irregularities, indicating the maintenance of the outcome she had signaled.”

Tuma also argued that the understanding now accepted by the Judiciary had already been expressed internally by Corinthians’ own bodies from the moment the meeting was called.

“This irregularity was recognized from the moment of the ill-fated calling, both by the club’s Justice Committee and by the Deliberative Council’s Ethics Committee, which, through a note from its president, rejected the maneuver that was being carried out at the time. The Judiciary has now merely confirmed this understanding,” he concluded.

With Tuma’s return to the presidency of the Deliberative Council, Leonardo Pantaleão will no longer hold overlapping roles and will return to dedicating himself exclusively to leading the Ethics Committee. During the interim period, he led the body’s work and called the General Assembly of members scheduled for next Saturday (20), when members will have the final say on the Corinthians bylaw reform proposal.

Read, in full, the statement sent by Romeu Tuma Júnior to Corinthians council members:

After my leave of absence from the position, during which I closely followed and assessed the Club’s situation, I return to the presidency of the Deliberative Council convinced that the moment requires calm, institutional responsibility, and a sense of urgency.

I inform you that I took care to formally inquire into the existence of any complaints against me in the Ethics Committee. Despite the speculation and interpretations publicly circulated since March of this year, there is no formal proceeding underway; in other words, there is nothing to support the claims that I had been removed or that I had exercised any kind of undue pressure on the Executive Board.

I would also add that the decision issued last Friday by the judge of the 1st Public Registries Court has nothing to do with my decision, which had already been made. It should be unnecessary to say, but I emphasize nonetheless, that I have absolutely no intention of assuming the club presidency during president Osmar Stabile’s trip while he is carrying out his duties. Therefore, I resume my duties as President of the Deliberative Council, calling on all its Members to give the highest priority to the club’s institutional life:

1. To gather all necessary efforts to unite Corinthians around the vote on the Bylaw Reform, so that the General Assembly of members is held in an orderly atmosphere and the result at the ballot box is respected institutionally and legally;

2. To contribute to institutional pacification, which I am certain is in everyone’s interest, and to the full normality of the Electoral Commission’s work, in view of the presidential election and the renewal of this Deliberative Council next November.

As always, I will count on the collaboration of the lifetime and triennial council members committed to the greater interest of Sport Club Corinthians Paulista.

Corinthians News

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