November 30 – Duílio Monteiro Alves has been elected the new president of Brazilian giants Corinthians. With the victory, former strongman Andrés Sanchez’s political group will lead the club for another three years.
The elections were staged at the Parque São Jorge, with Monteiro prevailing in a race against Mario Gobbi and Augusto Melo. Duílio obtained 1,079 votes (37.7%), Augusto Melo won 904 votes (32.6%) and Mário Gobbi 782 votes (27.3%).
Alongside Flamengo, Corinthians is Brazil’s biggest club. The Sao Paulo team has about 30 million fans across the country, but just 2,500 members had voting rights in the election.
Dulio led the campaign ‘Renovação e Transparência’, which is the group backed by Sanchez. He is the son of Adílson Monteiro Alves, who was a director of the club during the famous ‘Democracia Corinthiana’. Dulio has twice been a director of football at Corinthians.
The new president will have his work cut out, on and off the pitch. Last year, Corinthians suffered record losses of 177 million reias (€18 million) with debts growing to 665 million reais (€104.6 million).
The club have also been struggling to pay back loans they took on for building their stadium, but last week Corinthians and bank Caixa Economica rescheduled payments with the club now able to push out stadium debts repayments until 2040, instead of 2028.
On the field, Corinthians have been eliminated from both the Copa do Brasil, the Brazilian Cup, and the Copa Libertadores, the continent’s premier club competition. In the domestic league, they sit five points above the relegation zone.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, at moc.l1713922598labto1713922598ofdlr1713922598owedi1713922598sni@o1713922598fni1713922598