Andrés Sanchez’s group seeks to maintain power at Corinthians – 7/2/2023 – Sport

When former president Mario Gobbi (2012-2015) asked to speak at a meeting of the Corinthians Deliberative Council, on September 19, 2022, it was to address the current president Duilio Monteiro Alves, a few meters away. Both were elected by Renovation and Transparency, the political movement that has controlled the club for 16 years.

“I’m hurt with you. You’re lying”, accused Gobbi, voice altered, insinuating that Duilio was planning what would be a coup.

There was no ally to rise up to defend the current president. The only one to do so was the oppositionist Romeu Tuma Júnior.

No political group has been in power in a major club in the country for as long as Renewal and Transparency, a group created in the wake of Alberto Dualib’s departure from power at the end of 2007. who joins every three years for elections because of the name that is the glue that holds the movement, despite everything, together: Andrés Sanchez.

“You can put it there. We democratized Corinthians. In addition to the titles, the stadium, two training centers, nobody democratized Corinthians like we did”, says Andrés, president in 2007-2011 and 2018-2020.

This Tuesday (4), Renovação should launch one of its founders as a candidate for the year-end election: André Luiz Oliveira. Known at the club as André Negão, he resisted all attempts to impose another name. He presented a simple argument. It’s his time. Sanchez’s faithful ally, he already wanted to be chosen in the late 2020 election, won by Duilio.

“It’s André’s time”, defines Andrés.

“They created a democracy of convenience, based on the interests of half a dozen. When someone disagrees or dares to question this practice, he is purged under the most unworthy adjectives”, complains Tuma Júnior. “It’s a Soviet democracy, which was only against re-election because of the distrust of the Renewal founders themselves, because there was a prior agreement that they themselves would succeed each other in the club’s presidency for decades, benefiting their own interests.”

Directors and former directors heard by the Sheet have differing opinions on whether Duilio could use a loophole to seek re-election. It could, in theory, be based on an item included as a transitional provision in the statutory reform. This would allow whoever was in power at that time to seek another mandate. Despite being transitory, the section was not removed from the statute.

An internal document defending this thesis gathered the signatures of dozens of directors. Andrés held a meeting at Parque São Jorge in which he questioned adherence to the project, which did not have Duilio’s personal involvement, but that of allies. Almost all withdrew their support. But within the core of Renewal and Transparency, which upholds the credo that re-elections should be banned, that was seen as a betrayal.

Splits, abandonments and reunions for convenience are not uncommon in the political group that has controlled Corinthians since 2007. Nowadays, one of the arguments for the political abandonment of Duilio is that, in fact, he was not even part of Renovation and Transparency. He was on plate 22, another electoral plate. But not even they manage to deny that the current president was the candidate of the situation in the most recent election and had the support of Andrés Sanchez,

In the 2020 election, Mario Gobbi was an opposition candidate. He now supports André Luiz. Gobbi and Roberto de Andrade went to the presidency, in large part, with Andrés as their guarantor. He later felt betrayed by both, which caused the breakup —interrupted in the months prior to each election.

The argument of Duilio’s defenders is that he has spent the last three years paying bills and stabilizing the club’s debt, now at R$930 million. This would be the reason why the team on the field did not win titles. The last one was Paulista 2019. He would then deserve the chance to have a new mandate to be champion, with his house in order.

For Renewal and Transparency and, above all, Andrés, this number is a fantasy. Includes debts with the government, which are already paid in installments. The actual debt would then be around R$400 million. The issue of the stadium, after Odebrecht’s forgiveness and the agreement with Caixa, would also be resolved.

They form the political group that changed the history of Corinthians. On the field, there were five Paulistas, one Copa do Brasil, three Brasileiros, one Libertadores and one World Cup. It was the period in which the association managed to have its stadium, a training center for the professional and another for the base. The club revolutionized the country’s domestic market by signing Ronaldo Fenômeno at the end of 2008.

During the 2011 Copa America, in Argentina, Sanchez claims to have gone to the Brazilian team’s concentration in Los Cardales, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, with a R$130 million letter of credit issued by BMG. He wanted to convince Neymar to play for Corinthians. The amount would refer to the striker’s termination fine, who, however, had signed a contract the week before with Barcelona.

Nearly everyone who challenged the Renovation’s power at the ballot box lost. Paulo Garcia won a lawsuit pointing out that the 2018 election was irregular, but, when it came time to sign the term of execution of the sentence, he refused. There would have to be a new vote. Under pressure from his allies already elected to the Deliberative Council, he withdrew and left it as it was. Augusto Melo, second in 2020, should be the name of the opposition this year.

There is still the possibility of a third way. Paulo Garcia, despite having detected what he considers unprecedented fragility and wear and tear of the Renewal, still does not know if he will present a candidacy.

“There are times when I keep thinking: ‘Wh… what the hell, this Augusto could really win, he already took mine out of the line, and no one was going to say that I’m in charge of Corinthians”, said Andrés to Canal Coringão, on YouTube.

There are those among the opposition who consider this to be bravado and that, at the end of it all, Sanchez will be the Renewal candidate to keep the movement in power for another three years. Upon leaving office at the end of 2020, he swore, in an interview with Sheetwho would no longer be president of Corinthians.

“I am not [candidato]. It won’t be me,” she maintains these days.

Despite pressure from other people, Andrés assures the report that, for Renewal and Transparency, there is no room for re-election or for the return of those who have run for office in the past.

“It’s André’s turn”, he swears.