See the key priorities Tuma highlights for Corinthians' statute reform | OneFootball

President of the Corinthians Deliberative Council, Romeu Tuma Júnior held a press conference last Monday. The statute reform was one of the topics widely discussed by the director during the nearly two-hour interview held at the Teatro do Parque São Jorge.

The statutory reform has been heavily demanded by fans, especially regarding the possible right to vote for Corinthians’ supporter-members. This issue is on the agenda, but Romeu believes that other priorities also need to be discussed. He mentioned, for example, the need for a restructuring in compliance—a system that ensures a company’s adherence to laws.

“We need to carry out an administrative restructuring, a financial restructuring, an effective structuring of compliance, processes, and rules. Perhaps a tripartite body, because today you have a compliance that is outsourced, with no statutory provision. […] We need to create a superintendency model, something for compliance, which the president could appoint, even an outsourced body, but one that would have a [full] mandate to make changes, or so that to change compliance, authorization from the presidents of Cori, the CD, and the board would be required,” he assessed.

(Photo: Thais Bueno/Gazeta Press)

Tuma even cited the VaideBet case. The contract signed between Corinthians and the betting company did not go through the club’s compliance and became the target of a police investigation after suspicions of irregularities in the agreement’s intermediation process.

Suspended Corinthians president Augusto Melo became a defendant in the VaideBet case for the crimes of qualified theft, money laundering, and criminal association, as did Marcelo Mariano (former administrative director of Corinthians), Sérgio Moura (former marketing superintendent), and Alex Fernando André, known as Alex Cassundé (owner of the intermediary company).

“Today, those who handle compliance do it well, but I think sometimes the president doesn’t want to go through compliance, and there’s no one to force him. We’ve already had the VaideBet case here. We need to create a mechanism that sets a serious governance standard, a well-done compliance system, but one that the president doesn’t have the power to change. That it’s linked somewhere, a protection mechanism. There are several issues that are important to include in the statute, because it starts to bring seriousness for those looking to invest and so on. We have to try to start there,” Tuma explained.

Female Quota for Council Members and Fiel Torcedor with Voting Rights

According to Romeu Tuma, the current Corinthians statute does not provide for any type of ‘female quota’ for council members. The intention of the president of the Deliberative Council is for a proposal for change on the subject to be included in the reform project.

“We will have a major advance, we’re going to create a female quota for council members. We have very little female representation, only 15 councilwomen. The universe of female members is almost 50% or more. Women are over 55% of society. They need to participate more in the club’s political life, they have sensitivity for various things. We’re going to set a quota. Many people are against it, but we’re going to face this debate. It’s my duty as mediator of all this. I’ll provoke, we’ll put it to a vote, and if it has to be struck down, it will be struck down in the plenary or in the Assembly,” he commented.

Tuma also explained that the request for supporter-members with voting rights was included in the draft, but some points still need to be discussed. The councilors are debating whether to create a new plan for the Fiel Torcedor program or to set rules to define which supporter-members will have the right to participate in elections.

“Fiel Torcedor? We’ll put it to a vote. That was my commitment. We’re looking for the best way to have a counterpart for the member and for the club,” he said.

(Photo: Thais Bueno/Gazeta Press)

In any case, this last point will, in fact, be one of the innovations of the new Corinthians statute. Currently, the electoral college is made up of approximately 4,500 members of the social club. Some of the criteria are: having more than five years of membership, being the primary holder of the plan, and having dues up to date. With the upcoming change, the electoral college will increase. It remains to be seen under which rules.

“There’s no point in expecting the best statute on the face of the Earth. It will always be subject to improvements. We need to be more effective in changes, in modernization. For example, we have new legislation that the club hasn’t adapted to. I think the time is right, I think it’s been almost ten years since the last statutory reform, at least three or four Council administrations. Given everything that’s happened, we need to do a well-structured reform, at least in some important aspects. We have a routine of statutory changes, even to make it easier. Obviously, this change will be more difficult, because there are many structural things we need to change. We shouldn’t expect to make the best statute on the face of the Earth, but we’ll keep changing,” the director concluded.

Statute Reform Timeline

The draft for the statutory reform has already been duly completed and should be delivered to the Deliberative Council this September. Over the past year, there were a series of public hearings and meetings with all the club’s slates and with fans from all organized supporter groups, including the Gaviões da Fiel. Everyone presented proposals that were considered by the CD for the preparation of the new statute, which is at an advanced stage.

After the Assembly, there will be a new meeting, initially scheduled for October, with all the leaders of the club’s slates to define the voting system, among other topics. This is because the text can be voted on in full, in a single meeting, or in blocks, which would require more meetings. There is still a possibility and tendency for changes in the project, which was in a pre-finalized stage.

As soon as the text is ready, the Council will deliberate on the approval of the new statute, a stage scheduled for November. The intention is that, already in December of this year, the document will be voted on at a General Assembly, with the presence of the members. If approved, it will come into force immediately and will already be valid for 2026.

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