President of the São Paulo Football Federation since 2015, Reinaldo Carneiro Bastos, 70, says that Brazilian legislation is lagging behind the most recent changes in national football, driven by the expansion of the virtual betting market.
For Bastos, this gray area has generated financial losses for national sport, as online betting companies do not pay taxes. On the other hand, he says that it is possible that this scenario has created an inflated market for all agents, including communication companies, which tends to wither with the implementation of charges.
Deregulation also explains, according to him, the lack of rigor in the punishments of those who have been involved in match-fixing schemes.
Bastos proposes that a new legislation include mechanisms to mitigate the harmful effects of betting, such as the definition of limits on who can or cannot bet based on income criteria, in addition to the funding of education courses by betting companies.
Possible candidate for the presidency of the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) several times in the last decade, he says that the matter is already over for him.
Brazilian football has a new player, which are sports betting sites. How do you see their influence on football today?
Political influence I haven't felt any yet. Financially, they are in 97% of competitions, in 97% of clubs and investing a lot of money. What worries me is that we have been without a rule for some years now. Without paying tax.
Any of us here, if we do an account, if we had gone three or four years without paying taxes, our bank account would be much better.
They are sponsoring Brazilian football a lot. What will happen when it is regulated, when it starts to have obligations and when it starts to pay taxes?
I don't know. What will happen specifically for football, I don't know. If the money decreases, football will feel it. And it's not just football. Communication companies too. They are on radios, on TV.
Do you think it's healthy to encourage the population of a country like Brazil to place bets?
Everything that does not have a rule enables this type of comment. There's no rule. This is too big a matter, too serious, to live without a rule.
I think the person has to have a minimum income to be able to play or, according to their income, have a limit to play per month. But, mainly, there is no investment of bets to educate.
Education is essential to teach young people that they cannot play, young athletes that they cannot play, already professional athletes that this is a crime, that they cannot play, teach citizens that this can be harmful to their income, that it could hurt his family.
Do you defend that this should be included in the Provisional Measure for sports betting?
Somewhere it has to be. I think there should be a rule for people. For many people, this is an addiction. As such, it must be treated, cared for and observed. I believe that the law or the Provisional Measure need to deal with this seriously, they need to establish a rule.
Whose responsibility should it be to educate?
It's always the government. But I think that if I'm going to sponsor, I have to allocate a percentage to educate who you're going to reach.
This is a subject that I have already turned the page, I will not be a candidate for the presidency of the CBF. I am in my last term here in the Federation, I cannot be re-elected. My age has come; I've contributed all I could contribute.
They say that companies are not very willing to allocate some money for this.
I think this statement is very generic. We need to show them what the rules of the game are. Since we are going to start, we are going to regularize this, let's update the law, shall we?
Our legislation is old, archaic. There cannot be a law that the punishment is for manipulation of the result. That's back there. Now there are [bets on] corner, yellow card, number of fouls. It's not just a result. We have to be firm on this.
Source: Folha
