Financial Fair Play - Part III

As indicated in the first two parts of this series, the regulation of financial fair play in developed markets has occurred through continental confederations, especially UEFA, and club leagues, which are, not coincidentally, linked in some way to the European continental regulator itself. The Premier League and La Liga are well-known examples to the general public.

Although the main initiatives adopted as a reference did not originate from national confederations, this path is also legitimate and has been implemented, for example, in the Netherlands. Thus, the promotion of financial fair play by the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) is not an isolated event.

However, the origin is not the core of the issue at this moment, especially because CONMEBOL is still in its infancy on the subject and there is no club league in the country.

What matters most to understand what is being promoted is its motivation.

What are the reasons, therefore, that led the CBF to implement, or rather, to successfully implement, after previous attempts, a project that was resisted by several of the targets of the regulation: the clubs themselves.

And thus, it will be possible to properly understand the content and consequences of the new system.

It should be noted that this text will not make any value judgments; its purpose is to attempt to describe, throughout the Series, the new system, starting from its principles, and to discuss its operation and purposes.

The author of the main book published on the subject in Brazil, Caio Cordeiro de Resende (already mentioned in the previous text1), states, in the conclusion of a chapter dedicated to UEFA's effort to regulate fair play in Europe, that “the new regulation was a demonstration of the entity's gigantic strength. With it, UEFA would make it clear that its actions would not be restricted to the organization of international competitions. FFP (financial fair play) is, in this sense, a great instrument of power. As such, one of its main consequences was to consolidate UEFA's role as a powerful ruler, capable of confronting the problems it considered to exist in the organization of European football and imposing its vision, even against the will of some of the richest and most popular clubs on the continent”2.

Brazilian regulation helps to understand – if words can be borrowed for the current movement – ​​the purposes of the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation), which, since the election of the current board, has been implementing a series of measures indicative of its vision for an organizational project for football – and which also reflect a power project. Financial fair play is a fundamental, but not the only, pillar in this project.

In this sense, the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) understood the situation of the clubs – most of them financially fragile – perceived the division among managers, comprehended the problems caused by the lack of control over expenses, addressed the need to reverse the lack of consequences stemming from defaults – including among competing clubs – and imposed a series of rules that will become effective with the introduction of sanctioning instruments.

Unlike what happened on other occasions, this time there was massive support from clubs for the CBF's proposal and, more than that, no dissenting voices or movements have emerged, at least for now, capable of leading any resistance to weaken the idea – as could have (or would have) happened in the past.

There are perhaps two reasons: first, the impertinence of the conduct, since it was no longer possible – as it is no longer possible – to tolerate the abuses and irresponsibilities that have weakened Brazilian football; second, equally or more relevant, is the demonstration of strength by the entity.

According to public information, the process moved quickly: it began with the publication, on July 25, 2025, of Ordinance 13/25, establishing a working group; it went through four meetings: August 11 and 20, September 4, and November 11, 2025, with the presentation of initial regulations on the latter date; then a period was opened for receiving suggestions until November 13; and finally, the official regulations were presented on November 26, 2025, at the CBF Academy Summit in São Paulo.

This is, therefore, an impressive result, especially when considering the number of people involved, the often antagonistic interests of clubs, confederations, and other agents of the system, and the mechanisms used in the country to obstruct ideas, at any level, state or para-state, that shake institutionalized structures and methods.

In the case of financial fair play, which does not aim to reduce differences or inequalities, or to bring small and large closer together, but to impose standards of conduct, the recipients will have to live with certain concepts and will have to implement, among other things, techniques that enable solvency and sustainability, transparency and accounting standards, balance and resolution of overdue debt, disclosure of transactions with related parties and criteria for reporting MCO, anti-competitive rules, and subjection to punitive power.

These concepts and techniques will be discussed in the continuation of the series.