Monumental victory
Brazilian football looks like the next Premier League
Awash with money, the country’s teams are conquering South America
On November 30th 70,000 football fans piled into El Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires.
They came to cheer on two Brazilian teams, Atlético Mineiro and Botafogo, in the final of the Copa Libertadores, South America’s premier football tournament.
The match was ferocious.
In the first minute Gregore da Silva, a Botafogo midfielder, got a red card for sticking his studs into an opponent’s face, leaving his team with ten men.
Seconds before the end of extra time Botafogo’s Júnior Santos sliced through three Atlético players to whip the ball into the goal, sealing a 3-1 victory for his team.
The match was historic for several reasons.
It was the first Libertadores trophy for Botafogo, perennial underdogs.
It was the sixth Libertadores win in a row for a Brazilian team, the longest streak by any country.
And both finalists were “football PLCs” (SAFs by their Portuguese acronym), a new type of public limited company.
Botafogo’s is the most spectacular success story since Brazil allowed football clubs, which had historically been structured as non-profit associations, to incorporate in 2021. It will not be the last.
Thanks to the rise of SAFs and sports betting, Brazilian football is awash with money.
Its clubs are becoming more competitive, making Brazil the most exciting market for investors in the beautiful game.
Botafogo’s arc is legendary, and illustrates the forces in play across Brazilian football.
In the 1960s and 1970s the club was a factory for the world’s best footballers.
It has supplied more players to Brazil’s national team than any other club.
But for the past 40 years it has been in a tailspin.
It last won an international cup title in 1993.
Between 2000 and 2020 it was relegated from Brazil’s first division three times.
Its finances sank with it.
By 2020 it had debts of over 1bn reais ($170m), and annual revenues of just 151m reais.
Along came John Textor, an American businessman.
His firm, Eagle Football Holdings, owns stakes in Crystal Palace in England and Olympique Lyonnais in France.
He bought Botafogo in 2022 for some $66m.
The team’s debts have been cut in half.
This year he paid record sums for Luiz Henrique, a rightwinger, and Thiago Almada, an attacking midfielder.
“We Botafogo fans have John Textor on earth and God in heaven,” beams Isaias Lieberbaum, a 70-year-old fan.
The rewards are sweet.
Mr Textor received a $23m cheque for the Libertadores victory, but winning also qualifies Botafogo to take part in FIFA’s Club World Cup next year.
The prize pot is gigantic.
He wants to take Eagle Football Holdings public and expects to raise at least $1bn.
Even the losers are optimistic.
“We have everything in Brazil to become like the [Premier League],” says Daniel Vorcaro, the president of Banco Master, a Brazilian bank, who co-owns Atlético Mineiro.
“We have the passion, the talent, the fan base and the potential for growth.”
Four of Brazil’s “Big Twelve” teams have become SAFs since 2021.
More are expected to follow as the success stories pile up.
In 2021 Ronaldo, a famed Brazilian striker, bought Cruzeiro, a team with eye-watering debts that had slipped into the second division, for $70m.
He sold it in April for $100m, after bringing it back into the first division.
Brazilian football has also reaped financial gains from sports betting, which was legalised in 2018.
The country’s Central Bank reckons that Brazilians spent more than $3bn per month this year on bets through PIX, a digital payments system it runs (including other payment forms, the real value is much higher).
This enthusiasm for gambling has worried the government, which passed a law in 2023 forcing betting firms to obtain licences.
Despite the euphoria around them, SAFs cannot solve every problem.
In 2022 an American investment group called 777 Partners bought Vasco da Gama, one of Brazil’s biggest teams.
The group went bankrupt in October and is being investigated in the United States for fraud.
“SAFs are not a magic wand—you need good governance,” says José Francisco Manssur, co-author of the SAF law.
Others think there is more to Brazil’s dominance than SAFs and gambling money.
Irlan Simões of the University of the State of Rio de Janeiro notes that Colombia and Chile adopted SAF-like models before Brazil, but that their teams remain middling.
He says Brazil’s rise was inevitable.
The country’s large population means a bigger market for tickets, merchandise and broadcasting rights.
In 2016 Conmebol, which organises the Libertadores, allowed more teams to compete in qualifying rounds, which benefited Brazil simply because it has more clubs.
More money, fewer problems
“The association model is not fit for purpose,” says Mr Manssur, because clubs today have millions of fans and need money to buy the best players.
He thinks Brazil’s SAFs could become a model for others in the region.
That is a risky thought for a Brazilian.
No country would benefit more from an injection of capital than Brazil’s footballing nemesis, Argentina.
The country produces a disproportionate number of the world’s best players, but its domestic teams are a shambles.
After the Libertadores final Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, posted on X: “Shall we talk about SAFs?”
The country’s football association has fiercely resisted such efforts.
Perhaps the shame of watching Brazilian teams dominate on their home turf will sway it.
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