Why Corinthians boycotted the CBF meeting on refereeing, find out here | OneFootball

Last Monday, the CBF held the opening of the first Arbitration Working Group. Corinthians, however, decided to boycott the event and did not send any representatives to the entity's headquarters in Rio de Janeiro.

Among the Série A clubs, only Atlético-MG, Corinthians, and Fortaleza did not participate in the Working Group, a measure created by the CBF aimed at improving Brazilian football refereeing. Timão chose not to send executives to the event as a form of protest.

This is because the entity did not respond to a letter from Corinthians requesting that referee Edina Alves Batista no longer officiate the team's matches. The referee's performance in Timão's defeat to Red Bull Bragantino last week irritated the club's board.

On that occasion, the team had two players sent off and lost with a goal in the final minutes. Both coach Dorival Júnior and football executive Fabinho Soldado and president Osmar Stabile criticized Edina after the match in Bragança.

Stabile, still outraged, commented on the situation after the launch event of the 2026 Campeonato Paulista at Mercado Livre Arena Pacaembu.

“Corinthians does not solve refereeing problems. The CBF does. We have complained to the CBF several times about refereeing issues. We filed a complaint; it is up to the CBF to remove the referee or not. She made mistakes and needs to be removed. We are very upset with the refereeing. We have lost many points because of the refereeing, we are outraged,” he emphasized.

(Photo: Jhony Inácio/Ag. Paulistão)

More Complaints

This is not the first time Corinthians has formally complained to the CBF about refereeing issues. The club also questioned, through an official letter, the decisions of the referees who officiated the defeat to Bragantino on July 13, in the first round of the Brasileirão.

In the matches against Flamengo and Internacional, when the board also felt the team was harmed, the complaints were made publicly, with statements from Dorival, Fabinho, and Stabile.

Corinthians believes it has dropped points in the Brazilian Championship due to refereeing errors. With the complaints having no practical effect, the club decided to ignore the CBF meeting and now expects effective actions from the entity to improve refereeing.

“What would Corinthians do there? I believe the meeting was not very useful. We'll see in the next matches if it made a difference or not. Let's see what happens,” concluded Osmar Stabile.

Corinthians’ Next Match

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