Flamengo football council has emergency meeting and member explains why

During the 1-1 draw against Palmeiras in the last Sunday (11), two Flamengo players suffered serious injuries. Striker Everton Cebolinha ruptured the Achilles tendon in his left leg and full-back Matías Viña injured his right knee. As a result, the club's football council scheduled an emergency meeting last Monday (12).

In an interview with the Goal portal, Diogo Lemos, member of Flamengo's Football Council, explained the group's role in general and when asked about the emergency meeting, the councilor said that the summit does not define priorities or what they will be the players to be signed, but who are a strategic definition body on sales, replacements and the club's budget.

“That's not how the dynamics of the Football Council work. It is not up to us to define technical priorities and look for athletes. Flamengo has an entire professional structure, a department that defines the squad's needs, Scout professionals who have all the main possibilities for position and a football director who brings us all this information. Today, after 2 injuries to important players in the squad, obviously and naturally, new demands arose for the squad and we had the meeting.

What we at the Council evaluate are the proposals we have, the club's budget and the replacement possibilities defined by the club's professionals. The Football Council does not nominate or look for players. We are a strategic definition body in view of the sales proposals we have, the needs of the squad and the possible reinforcements indicated by the entire professional structure of the club.

Even if the decision is to readjust the budget, this passes by the council, as well as spending limits for investment in athletes, always aligned with the president. The Scout, technical and tactical aspects, in addition to the physical conditions and values ​​of the athletes, are evaluated by Flamengo football professionals. No player is hired without being duly approved by the Scout, validated by the technical department and within the financial conditions that include the budget defined by the club. That said, we will certainly strengthen the squad, with the same responsibility as always, respecting our professionals and mitigating the possibility of errors in hiring”, defined Diogo Lemos.

Diogo Lemos is, together with Marcos Braz, the most media member of the Football Council, which was one of Rodolfo Landim's proposals since the electoral campaign in 2018, when he was elected for the first time as president of Flamengo. The president's idea was not to centralize decision-making power over a single person, but rather to have discussions in a professional manner so that the club could choose its next steps.