Would Brazilian clubs be approved under UEFA's Financial Fair Play?
By Chandler Greenport / Rodrigo Oliveira
Recently, especially after some comments from Flamengo directors, we have seen a certain discussion in the Brazilian press about the implementation of financial fair play rules in Brazilian football.
But what would these rules be?
Financial Fair Play (FFP) is a set of regulations established by UEFA aimed at promoting the financial sustainability of football clubs. Introduced in 2011, the mechanism seeks to prevent clubs from spending more than they earn, ensuring that all spending on transfers and salaries is balanced with the revenues generated.
Currently, these expenses are limited to 80% of the clubs' revenues. For the 2025/2026 season, UEFA will implement a rule stating that clubs can only spend a maximum of 70% of their revenues on salaries, charges, agents, and amortizations.
Based on this, we conducted a comparative study in which we will indicate which Brazilian clubs would be approved under the Financial Fair Play rule.
Below is a list of Brazilian clubs, indicating their revenue and costs, with those that would be approved marked in green and those that would be rejected marked in red:
Thus, we see that in 2023, only four clubs would be approved under the Financial Fair Play regulations of Europe: Flamengo, Athletico Paranaense, Santos and Cruzeiro.
Regarding Flamengo, the club, as is well-known, has benefited from decades of public sponsorships and a fan base averaging over 50,000 people, which has contributed to the club's current financial health.
Athletico Paranaense made a significant sale of player Vitor Roque, which brought R$ 213,400,000.00 into the club's coffers. The amounts that will be paid in installments by Barcelona have not yet been accounted for.
Santos, on the other hand, received R$ 166,000,000.00 from player sales in 2023, with R$ 164,000,000.00 coming solely from the sale of David Washington to Chelsea.
Cruzeiro, for its part, received R$ 96,000,000.00 as an advance from the sale of its commercial rights to Liga Forte União (LFU). The very low investment made by its former owner, Ronaldo, also contributed to its approval under UEFA's Financial Fair Play system.