Corinthians to pay fine and switch Arena car park operator, see details | OneFootball

The Corinthians is about to change the operation of the parking lot at Neo Química Arena, currently managed by Indigo. With the new company already chosen, only the payment of the R$ 11 million fine to the current company remains, which the club intends to make in the coming days with an advance from the new manager, whose name is still kept confidential.

As published by Gazeta Esportiva last Wednesday, there is a disagreement regarding the fine amount with Indigo, which has managed the Arena's parking lot since 2018. According to the club, the amount to be paid is R$ 11 million, while the company responsible for managing the location believes the amount is higher, around R$ 20 million.

Corinthians, in turn, adopts a firm stance in the negotiations and has already decided to pay the R$ 11 million. If Indigo does not agree with the conditions, there is a possibility that the company will demand the R$ 9 million difference in the fine amount in court.

(Photo: Luiz Fernando Carrijo / Corinthians)

Details of the new parking contract

The new administrator of the Neo Química Arena parking lot will have direct involvement in paying the fine to break the contract with Indigo. According to Gazeta Esportiva, the new company will make an advance to Corinthians, which will cover the R$ 11 million and an additional amount as a kind of ‘bonus’.

There is still no definition on how this advance would be deducted by Corinthians over the contract period. It is worth remembering that the club would be unable to make new changes in the parking management until it reimburses the amount advanced by the new manager.

The Timão board has everything ready to make the change, with only the fine payment remaining. In the contract with the new operator, Corinthians will be entitled to 40% of the net revenue that the company obtains. For this, the board is developing a revenue control system for the company responsible for the operation, precisely to closely monitor how much and how the company will collect periodically.

In early August, Gazeta Esportiva revealed that the alvinegra board, presided over by Osmar Stabile, was dissatisfied with the contract conditions with Indigo, which motivated the opening of a kind of “bidding” to seek interested parties to take over the operation. In other words, the club went to the market and opened a competitive, free, and broad competition process where companies presented their offers.

In this kind of “bidding,” Corinthians stipulated minimum conditions to consider any proposal. The club intended to receive at least R$ 20 million over a 10-year period. In addition, Timão required at least 30% of the revenue that the contracted company would obtain, which was celebrated in the new agreement.

Harmful contract?

Members of the current Corinthians board believe that the contract with Indigo is harmful to the club. The agreement for the company to become responsible for managing the Neo Química Arena parking lot was signed in May 2018, during Andrés Sanchez's management.

At the time, Timão received R$ 11.4 million. Of this amount, R$ 2.5 million was allocated to Omni, the former operator of the site, and R$ 8.9 million to the Arena Fund, paid in two installments.

The contract stipulates that the company cannot be removed for a period of 120 months and that the agreement cannot be terminated for just cause under any circumstances. The contract would only allow for termination ten years after the initial term, if there was automatic renewal, provided Corinthians formalized a 30-day notice.

Moreover, Indigo was exempt from paying rent whenever the annual net revenue was equal to or less than R$ 4.8 million, a value that was adjusted over the years. Thus, even using a club asset, the company never paid any monthly fee to Corinthians.

The contract became the target of criticism from fans and the ousted president Augusto Melo, who even promised to investigate it through the audit conducted by Ernst & Young, one of the largest companies in the world in the field, hired at the beginning of his management to “clean up Corinthians”.

The results of the investigations, however, were never officially released. As published by Gazeta Esportiva in March of this year, all the information found was presented to the club's board, which at the time decided not to pay for E&Y's service and, consequently, by contractual obligation, did not receive copies of the reports of each contract reviewed, which would include the company's opinion.

Earlier this week, the current Corinthians board, which settled the debt with E&Y, had a meeting with members of the consulting firm for the presentation of the report. In a statement, Timão reported that the document “corroborates the club's financial situation without presenting new facts that the board is not already addressing”. The club intends to release the document soon.

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