BUT ALREADY? BOTAFOGO IS IN RISK OF BEING ELIMINATED FROM THE CARIOCA CHAMPIONSHIP THIS SATURDAY

Flamengo entered the field on Thursday night. With a packed Maracanã, Tite's men played the first match of the Libertadores quarter-finals against Peñarol (URU). The objective was to play a good game and take an advantage for the return game, next week. In this sense, the Rio team ended up disappointing the more than 60 thousand paying guests at the stadium and lost 1-0, in one of the team's worst matches of the year.

Summary

Peñarol It started well and Peñarol soon showed that it would play on the red and black error. Therefore, the Uruguayans opened the scoring after 12 minutes, with Cabrera, in a counterattack. Soon after, Flamengo responded with Plata's header hitting the post. But the red and black team had difficulty creating chances. In the final stretch of the first half, Flamengo grew and had great opportunities to draw. Bruno Henrique, alone, headed over goalkeeper Aguerre, who also made a great save from Arrascaeta's shot.

In the second half, Flamengo came back even better, but came up against the strong Uruguayan marking and the lack of creativity to reach the opponent's goal. Tite moved the sides, which gave Flamengo more speed, however, it had little effect due to a terrible night from Arrascaeta and De la Cruz. As a result, the result did not change and now Flamengo needs to reverse the situation away from home next week.

What now?

With the result, Flamengo will need to win by at least two goals to guarantee one of the places in the Libertadores semi-finals. The match takes place in Uruguay, next Thursday. However, Fla needs to turn the key, because there is a Brazilian Championship game to play on the weekend. Tite's men will face Grêmio, away from home, next Sunday, at 6:30 pm;

Last Wednesday (18), representatives from Flamengo and Caixa Econômica Federal held another meeting to resolve the impasse surrounding the Gasologista land, acquired by the club in July. The meeting had the support of Rio de Janeiro City Hall and the Attorney General's Office (AGU), and a new meeting scheduled for next week, in Brasília, could seal the definitive agreement. The information was released by journalist Diogo Dantas, from the newspaper "O Globo".

Mengão's board of directors, represented by president Rodolfo Landim, vice-general Rodrigo Dunshee, CEO Reinaldo Belotti and vice-president of equity Marcos Bodin, was optimistic about the possibility of a solution soon. Caixa questions the amount paid by the club at the land auction, but everything indicates that an additional amount could resolve the legal conflict by next month.

The meeting was also attended by deputy Pedro Paulo and the club's director of external relations, Cacau Cotta, who have acted as intermediaries between the club and the mayor from Rio, Eduardo Paes. In August, a meeting involving the bank's president, Carlos Vieira, president Lula and mayor Eduardo Paes had already signaled the path to an agreement.

Mais Querido's director of external relations, Cacau Cotta, highlighted that the agreement is the ideal way to give peace of mind to the club. "For the club, a good agreement is always better than an eternal discussion about values. The land has already been expropriated. The agreement is ideal to eliminate any doubts and for Flamengo to have the necessary peace of mind to begin the work", said Cotta.

After the draw at Nilton Santos, John Textor, owner of SAF do Botafogo, spoke about the problems with Julio Casares, president of São Paulo. He defended that the two have a good relationship and also cited recent statements by Rodolfo Landim, Flamengo's president, who has criticized Alvinegro's high investments.

"I really appreciate that Julio [Casares] is here tonight. He was one of the first to welcome me to Brazil in a very good way. I know you are all reporting a lot of conversations about everything that happened last year, or maybe not happened, about fair play issues. It's important for people to understand that presidents can still be friends, they can be very civil with each other, they can advocate for their public policy views. As a friend, I would say it was great to see you here. We gave each other a big hug because we hadn't seen each other in a long time. In the Libra days, he was one of the people who welcomed me best."

"We are building an organization, a team. we are spending considerably less than what the fair play law says about 75% of our income on sales and player salaries. I think the Landimthe other day said that we needed to have rules because places like Brazil don't have these rules, if an investor comes and takes advantage of the fact that we don't have the rules. But we are in full agreement with all definitions of financial fair play around the world. I was the first to talk about it. I said if we don't do something about the salary cap and invite foreign investment, it will come from sovereign wealth nations with money and oil, then we really have a problem. I'm a lawyer for financial fair play."

Casares has already had fights with the owner of SAF do Glorioso amid accusations of match-fixing for the 2023 Brazilian Championship. The feud, however, remained in the background given the great repercussion of Textor's clashes with Leila Pereira, president of Palmeiras, the board of Tricolor São Paulo took action against the owner of SAF do Botafogo in several legal spheres.

In relation to. Landim, the president of Flamengo, has criticized Botafogo's high investment in several interviews. He argues that Brazil needs financial fair play to stop the money from SAFs.