Vasco sues Justice and Maracanã may be left without a manager

It seems hardly believable, but the main stadium in Brazil, Maracanã, once again sees its use at risk due to problems related to its management. This Tuesday (25), the usage contract signed between the government of Rio de Janeiro and Flamengo and Fluminense comes to an end, and as the new concession process has been suspended for six months by determination of the State Court of Auditors (TCE- RJ), the administration of the stadium runs the risk of becoming brainless.

In principle, there was the intention that the current agreement be renewed, but Vasco triggered the Justice. The club from São Januário is also interested in hosting games at the venue and considers that the rivals’ contract with the state government is not isonomic and violates the legislation.

The decision on the imbroglio is in charge of the 9th Public Treasury Court of the Capital and may come out, at least in an injunction, at any time. In addition to the three interested clubs, the State Attorney General’s Office (PGE) also manifested itself in the records and the case is now under analysis.

Rivals on the field, Flamengo and Fluminense teamed up to manage the Rio de Janeiro arena in 2019, after the then governor of Rio, Wilson Witzel, broke the concession contract with the Maracanã Consortium. Led by Odebrecht, the consortium had won six years earlier. It was a tender that provided for the exploitation of the entire sports complex for a period of 35 years. Changes in the scope of the contract, however, led the agreement to result in successive millionaire deficits.

At the time, the way found by the government for the stadium to continue operating was to create a Term of Permission for Use (TPU) until a new long-term concession was made. Thus, the Fla-Flu duo took over the management. The problem is that this TPU has been renewed six times since then, while the bidding process never got off the ground.

In October last year, the Civil House of the State even launched a new public notice for the concession. The document sought an agreement lasting 20 years and provided for at least 60 matches in the season. Two groups even expressed interest in taking over the concession: on the one hand, Flamengo and Fluminense. On the other, Vasco and construction company WTorre.

The process, however, was suspended shortly thereafter by determination of the TCE-RJ. The body’s technical staff pointed out an imbalance between the technical and economic criteria in the public notice presented by the government, in addition to considering that not all previous stages had been carried out – there was no public hearing on the concession, for example. In this way, the usage agreement continued to be valid normally, but the current contract ends this Tuesday.

At the beginning of the month, the governor of Rio, Cláudio Castro (PL) said in an interview with Estadão that his only concern was that Maracanã favor “the game, not the business” – that is, the government wants the stadium to have as its main function hosting soccer matches, not concerts.

“All states that favored business are in trouble today. Mineirão is in trouble, Pacaembu is in trouble… If I’m not mistaken, Arena Pantanal is in trouble. Palmeiras is in trouble at its stadium with a partner. .. Everyone who privileges business and not the game is systematically having problems out there. And, in Maracanã, we want to privilege the game”, he maintained. The clubs mentioned did not manifest themselves.

“Now who will be, which club will join which, this is a commercial matter for them, the State does not get involved. There is a big controversy, who will play, who will not play… I have constantly repeated that this is not it’s a problem of the State. The State will solve it if this is a problem later. As the granting authority, it will put its hand in the bowl if someone is prevented from playing. Until then, we don’t even know who will win.”