Managers of 15 Brazilian football clubs met this Tuesday (21) with federal deputy Felipe Carreras (PSB-PE), rapporteur of the project that updates the Pelé Law (9615/98), with an eye on the potential for annual revenue from R$ 25 billion (US$ 4.9b) in Brazil. In yet another round of debates on the topic, they want to direct part of the revenue from online gaming to teams in the form of royalties or rights negotiation.
According to the Convocados/XP Report released last week, 28% of the population of Brazil has already made some kind of sports bet. The survey indicates that 31% of those interviewed invest from R$1 to R$20 (US$ 0.20 to $3.90). The fans of Fluminense, Flamengo, Palmeiras (30%), Grêmio and Corinthians are the most engaged in the games.
A source tells the blog Drible de Corpo, from Correio Brasiliense, that the clubs intend to include a paragraph in the Pelé Law that grants clubs the rights arising from the economic exploitation of game data in the betting market in order to grant participation in the revenues to those who effectively hold the right to produce this data.
“The betting sites fix brands and club names on their websites, economically exploit an intellectual property that is the right of clubs and competition organizers,” he argues.
The specific article of the Pelé Law that can be updated to benefit clubs is 42. “The right to the arena belongs to sports entities, consisting of the exclusive prerogative of negotiating, authorizing or prohibiting the capture, fixation, issuance, transmission, retransmission or reproduction of images, by any means or process, of a sporting event in which they participate.”
Aligned, the 15 clubs convinced the rapporteur of the Pelé Law in the Chamber of Deputies, deputy Felipe Carreras, to speed up an “F5” in the text in order to adapt it to the economic phenomenon and new technologies. This was just one of several proposals put forward by the club legal department in the country's two top divisions.
“As a regulatory framework for betting is being created, we are trying to find ‘new’ money to promote the sport. The agenda is very important. It is an important source of revenue. We need to fight to have our share by right,” claims one club’s manager.
“We accepted a good part of the ideas, some did not advance, others need a little more analysis. The most important thing is that clubs adhere to the agenda (reform of the Pelé Law), their willingness to add to this proposal. Whoever wins is the whole of Brazil, because football is a heritage of our country,” said congressman Felipe Carreras.
In the specific case of betting, one of the rapporteur's concerns is with betting integrity. An auditing firm, chosen through a bidding process, would monitor the fairness of match results. Topics such as the issue of players traded with teams from abroad and their relationship with the training clubs were also on the agenda. “Others need a little more analysis, such as the labor issue that involves athletes in training aged between 12 and 14 years,” claims Carreras.
“There is a provision for ‘training compensation’ to clubs that train athletes, whose system grants the sports entity the right to receive up to 200 times the amount paid for training the athlete. The legislation obliges the 'new sports entity' to pay this compensation. Often the athlete leaves the national club and goes abroad, which is not reached by the jurisdiction of our states and the training club does not receive the amount of compensation. We want to include an agenda in which, if the athlete returns to Brazil, after spending time abroad, compensation is payable from the athlete himself,” says a source.
One of the illustrations presented at the meeting was that of an under-21 player who refuses to sign with the Brazilian club he formed and signs with a team from abroad. Consequently, the home team cannot demand payment from the club outside the country, only the training compensation provided for in FIFA regulations, which is infinitely less than the amount set by Brazilian legislation.
Of the 15 clubs present at the meeting, only one, Guarani, is closed with Libra, the Brazilian League of Clubs. The other teams represented this Tuesday in the Chamber of Deputies are part of the opposition group Forte Brasil: Atlético-MG, Coritiba, Goiás, Sport, Atlético-GO, Náutico, CSA, Vila Nova, Avaí, Fortaleza, Sampaio Corrêa, Fluminense, Athletico-PR, Figueirense, América-MG and CRB. The National Association of Clubs also participated in the approximately two-hour meeting at the National Congress.
Despite the evident division of groups due to the absence of clubs such as Flamengo, Vasco, Corinthians, Palmeiras, São Paulo, Santos, Cruzeiro, Grêmio, Internacional and others, the blog found that the demands presented to the rapporteur of the Pelé Law in the Chamber of Deputies were made in concert by the legal departments of almost all clubs. An exception would have been Flamengo, which did not participate in the rounds of discussions.
Source: Correio Brasiliense
