Vasco and Lamacchia plan ‘blind fund’ to get round CBF rules | OneFootball

The billion-real negotiations for the sale of Vasco's Football Corporation (SAF) took on international legal contours this Thursday (26). The club’s board and businessman Marcos Lamacchia intend to formally discuss with the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) the implementation of a European administrative model to make the club’s purchase feasible without circumventing the new and strict financial fair play rules. This intention has already been signaled preliminarily and informally to the National Agency for Football Regulation and Sustainability (ANRESF), with the clear objective of scheduling a definitive meeting on the matter in the coming days of the sports stoppage.

The major legal obstacle hanging over the operation worth more than R$ 2 billion, which provides for the full payment of the SAF’s debts and major structural investments in Rio de Janeiro, lies in the buyer’s family ties. The interested investor is the direct son of José Roberto Lamacchia and the stepson of current Palmeiras president Leila Pereira. Article 86 of the Financial Sustainability System establishes a clear anti-front rule in sports, expressly prohibiting relatives up to the second degree (including by marriage) from holding majority control or exercising significant influence over two different clubs competing in the same top national division.

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The European solution: the Blind Trust

To prevent the transaction from being blocked by sports regulators or Vasco from suffering serious disciplinary sanctions, such as losing points in the standings or having its official operating license revoked, the parties are studying the adoption of a financial mechanism known as a Blind Trust. This complex legal structure consists of completely removing the investor from direct control and the acquired institution’s day-to-day football management, creating an insurmountable and independent barrier between the capital owner and football administration.

This protective mechanism is already widely discussed in the halls of São Januário and is provided for within the national body’s own rules for cases of conflict of interest. In practice, applying this format would ensure that the buyer injects all the money required by contract for the acquisition and maintenance of Vasco’s operation, but sporting and administrative management would be conducted exclusively by independent third parties with no connection to his other companies. This forced distancing would be temporary, lasting only until his stepmother leaves the presidency of the São Paulo rival at the end of the 2027 season.

Successful UEFA examples and Vasco SAF’s next steps

The strategic model desired by Vasco’s board has had very successful examples in European football recently. The national agency is already studying practical cases validated by UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) to deal with the controversial issue of multi-club ownership. The most emblematic case involved the famous City Football Group (CFG), which had to temporarily transfer its shareholding in Girona to an independent blind trust to ensure that the Spanish team and powerhouse Manchester City could compete in the high-profile Champions League in the same season without violating any continental governance rules.

Vasco is working with an ingenious parallel market strategy while the “blind trust” is not finalized behind the legal scenes. The board plans to recover 100% of the shares currently tied up in court and then sell the 90% stake to the São Paulo businessman in installments. To avoid involving the investor at this first stage and increasing legal costs, the member-run club would buy the portion it does not own and later recover the full amount through the businessman’s hefty capital injections. The CBF’s national agency will maintain absolute confidentiality over the case and will only assess the operation’s technical documentation when the purchase request is formally filed in the coming weeks of negotiations.

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