“My hands are tied”, Pedrinho laments after Vasco SAF ruling

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Papo na Colina

·25 de junho de 2026

“My hands are tied”, Pedrinho laments after Vasco SAF ruling

The political climate at Vasco da Gama took another dramatic turn after the 4th Business Court of Rio de Janeiro decided to remove president Pedrinho and two other board members from the management of Vasco SAF. In an interview with the channel Atenção, Vascaínos!, the Vasco idol tried to contain the fallout surrounding the club’s football negotiations and assured that businessman Marcos Lamacchia remains firmly committed to the process of acquiring 90% of the shares.

Talks with the investor have remained frequent in recent hours, and the former player expressed concern about the narratives being created by opponents:

Vídeos OneFootball

“If the investor didn’t know exactly who I am, he could walk away from the deal amid all this turmoil. I already know every path they’re going to take to make the investor doubtful, but they’re mistaken. The more they do this, the more comfortable and confident the investor feels about doing business with Vasco. Not for now, no—if anything, he has shown even more interest, especially because of what they’re doing to me.”

+ 777 injunction removes Pedrinho and board members from Vasco SAF

Financial freeze in football and intervention

Pedrinho detailed the practical impact of this dispute on signings and explained that the court injunction, which appointed lawyer Samantha Mendes Longo as judicial intervenor of the company for 60 days, stripped him of his signing authority. This bureaucratic paralysis directly affects the planning of Vasco’s football department, which was counting on immediate funds for the mid-year transfer window.

The sporting damage was the central point of his outburst about the frozen budget:

“If we had already sped up all the processes, we would already have had the possibility of getting funding in the middle of the year even for investment in football, which would help a lot. But with all these problems caused intentionally, beyond trying to drive the investor away, it’s obviously about harming us from a sporting standpoint.”

Pedrinho criticized Vasco da Gama politics – Photo: Reproduction

Political backstage, betrayal and threats from opponents

Pedrinho revealed a deep breakdown of trust with former allies who were part of Vasco’s management. While describing the escalation of RJ’s legal disputes, the president admitted fearing for his physical safety and for the financial consequences of having taken on major groups, including former controlling shareholder 777 Partners.

The psychological pressure and the loss of rights in the president’s chair were described forcefully:

“We’re going to assess it legally in order to make the decision that doesn’t harm the institution. Since yesterday, many people have been asking about names. I have indications, some dismissals—you can observe that. And some big names that I don’t want to mention out of fear, really, of what could happen to me. I picked a lot of fights. With 777, it was extremely tough. I faithfully trusted one of these people who turned against me. RJ is a family matter that is very hard, I received threats about losing assets. Am I going to be stupid, a criminal, have no character? Am I going to put my assets on the line to steal a tiny amount and lose assets worth far more? You want the chair? Finish the sale and I’ll leave. From the information I have, I’ve lost any signing rights at SAF. They put a woman there whose name escapes me. My hands are tied. It’s very difficult.”

Felipe Carregal, former Vasco legal director alongside Pedrinho – Photo: Reproduction

Technical overhaul and Renato Gaúcho’s dismissal

Pedrinho pointed to the lack of tactical progress in day-to-day work as the real reason for coach Renato Gaúcho’s departure, rejecting the idea that he was dismissed because of his strong press conferences. With the market inflated, Vasco’s president is studying a new profile that is viable for the club’s current financial reality.

The reasons for the dismissal and the football economic landscape were detailed openly:

“The dismissal was due to an issue of quality in the day-to-day, regarding certain aspects of the game where I felt we were not going to progress. People ask why I waited so many days to let Renato go. Because at that point I was still expecting a different response. Some reports came out saying he didn’t believe. If he didn’t believe, it was hard to continue. Renato is a guy I loved working with. What I told him is that I don’t promise things I can’t deliver. Especially because of the whole investor issue. I didn’t know whether we would have the money to sign players from a different tier. At the same time, we would do what we’ve done so far without an investor: signings that worked out, others that didn’t, but we had to move in the market as always.”

The Vasco idol said he is fully available to open up his bank transactions and bury suspicions raised by the opposition.

Issue involving former Vasco player

In the end, Pedrinho backed his partner Felipe Maestro and exposed the harmful conduct of Manuel Capasso, a former Argentine center-back whose time behind the scenes at São Januário was turbulent. The defender was accused of sabotaging day-to-day life at the training center and leaking information to channels in Vasco’s digital sphere.

The dressing-room split caused by the defender’s behavior was laid bare in the final stretch of the statement:

“He could have given a different answer, people would have understood. He was a player who leaked everything that happened at the CT. Everything. He even put some dirty stuff in the Gatorade, to say it was dirty. Something that humiliated the institution. We’d win 10, lose 1, and the question was why so-and-so wasn’t playing. It rained at São Januário, and the question was, ‘why isn’t he playing?’ We knew this athlete had that relationship with that YouTuber. This athlete was behaving maliciously and destroying the institution and his own teammates. To the point that when he came in, the players would turn the other way. But that interview went down the wrong path because of the bad moment he went through there. But Felipe deserves a lot of respect. He is the biggest winner in the club’s history. And I’m not saying that because he’s my friend, no.”

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