RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION CRITICIZES THE CONSTRUCTION POLICY OF THE FLAMENGO STADIUM

The lawyer, professor, former councilor and representative of the Federation of Residents' Associations (FAM-Rio) on the Rio Urban Policy Council Sonia Rabello wrote an article in Diário do Rio stating that the expropriation of the Gasometer land by the City Hall of Rio for the construction of the Flamengo stadium “is neither legitimate nor constitutional”.

The basic argument used by Sonia to justify this point of view, however, is based on a false premise: that the expropriated land by Paes belongs to Caixa Econômica Federal. In reality, the land belongs to a private fund that is only managed by Caixa, as shown by the General Property Registry documents. 

“A point that must be clear from the beginning, as explained directly by the Mayor of Rio, is that he is using his greatest state power, as head of the municipal Executive, to remove from CEF, a public bank federal, the right to own a plot of land measuring 88 thousand square meters to allocate this asset specifically to a private entity/company; in other words, for this private legal entity, the Flamengo club, to carry out its business and private activity – a football club/stadium with other social attractions”, she writes at the beginning of the article.

It turns out that not only is the land not owned by Caixa, but Paes is not specifically allocating it to Flamengo. The property will be put up for auction and other companies and clubs will be able to make proposals if they are interested in fulfilling the conditions that will be established in the notice for the purchase and use of the land.

Based on this false argument that is repeated several times in the text, in which the property that will be expropriated is referred to as “Caixa Econômica Federal land” and “Caixa asset”, the former councilor argues that only the Union would have the power to expropriate the land. She also questions the city hall's arguments for expropriation and Flamengo's right to build its stadium on the land.

“It should be noted that for this legal-conceptual analysis it is of little importance whether the club is large, medium, or small, loved or not, with many or few fans, or whether or not it deserves such a benefit. There are countless private entities in the city and in the world, companies, businesses, factories, schools, hospitals, housing, concert areas that, in each person's view, may or may not deserve to be offered equal benefits”, he stated.