Sociedade Anônima do Futebol ("Football anonymous society", SAF) is a type of

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. It was introduced by Law 14193/21, which sought to improve the governance and financial management of Brazilian football clubs.

Background

Until 2021 football clubs in Brazil were structured as non-profit civil associations, who were exempted from taxes, and could not be sold to investors. Law 14193/21 seeks to provide a legal framework for clubs to transition to companies, providing mechanisms such as a centralized regime for indebted clubs to pay their creditors, allowing clubs to issue CVM-regulated

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

and incentivizing new investments. Other than the civil associations, some football clubs were structured as public limited companies prior to the introduction of the SAF model, such as

Cuiabá Esporte Clube Cuiabá Esporte Clube is a Brazilian professional club based in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso founded on 12 December 2001. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série B, the second division of Brazilian football league system, Brazilian football, as ...

(later transitioned to a SAF) and

Red Bull Bragantino Red Bull Bragantino () is a Brazilian football club based in Bragança Paulista, São Paulo. It competes in the Série A, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system, as well as in the Campeonato Paulista Série A1, the highest lev ...

, who opted to remain as a public limited company. The law was based on a study by the lawyers Rodrigo Monteiro de Castro and José Francisco Manssur, published in their 2016 book ''Futebol, Mercado e Estado'' (''Football, Market and State''), which analyzed the business structure of Brazilian football and compared it to foreign models. Afterwards, the study was presented to the National Congress in 2019 by senator Rodrigo Pacheco ( PSD- MG), resulting in the creation of Bill 5.516/2019, authored by Pacheco. The bill was reported to the Federal Senate by senator Carlos Portinho ( PL- RJ), where it was approved in 10 June 2021. It was reported to the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

by congressman Fred Costa ( PATRI-MG) and voted in 14 July, where it was approved with a 429-7 vote. The bill was sanctioned by President

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and former military officer who served as the 38th president of Brazil from 2019 to 2023. He previously served as a member of Brazil's Chamber of Deputies (Brazil), Chamb ...

in 9 August 2021, resulting in the creation of Law 14.193/2021.

List of SAFs

* The list takes into account clubs of Série A and Série B.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sociedade Anônima do Futebol Law of Brazil Sports terminology Corporate law Legal entities Types of business entity

Background

List of SAFs

See also

References