Corinthians power struggle: ousted leader hits back at board | OneFootball

Augusto Melo, recently sidelined from the Corinthians presidency following a vote by the club’s Deliberative Council, has reiterated that he still considers himself the rightful president and pushed back against allegations of wrongdoing within the club’s leadership. In public remarks, Melo directly criticized the return of former financial director Osvaldo Stabile and questioned decisions by fellow board members regarding club operations.

“They always have the majority. I came in with a smaller group. Why has the financial director from 2023, who failed to account for many things, come back? Why not bring in fresh leadership, which we were trying to do?” Melo stated. He argued that the club has a habit of swapping out directors until a successful formula is found and insisted that his administration was making gradual improvements. He pointed to longstanding financial problems: “In one year, despite all Corinthians’ difficulties and inheriting R$2 billion in problems from the last 16 years, I took a club with a R$70 million sponsorship and a team near relegation in both the Paulista and Brasileiro. I raised our sponsorship to R$200 million and revenue from R$900 million to R$1.15 billion.”

Melo went on to highlight that he had brought significant new investment to the club, “I am the president who has brought in more money than any other football club leader in Latin America, and there are four more big contracts on the table for the Deliberative Council to consider. I didn’t need to do this, but I’m fair. I want to share responsibility for these major deals. I secured the biggest TV partnership and took our accounts to the courts for oversight. Everything I’ve done is clean and transparent, replacing their bad contracts with better ones.”

Refuting claims of a coup attempt, Melo said, “They’ve tried to undermine me since day one, and now they’re succeeding. I paid for it with betrayal. We kept ticket prices among the cheapest in the world, even without much money, in order to make games accessible for the fans. I delivered a Paulista title, a Copa São Paulo title, and we’re sorting out some issues.”

Melo also clarified the circumstances of his departure: “I wasn’t removed by the police—quite the opposite. I made an agreement with Osmar [Stabile] to step aside; otherwise, we would have been there all night or ended up at the police station. In this standoff, we’re in the right, and I’m at peace with that. I didn’t orchestrate a coup against anyone; in fact, I’m against that.”

His remarks come in the context of ongoing leadership instability and major governance reforms at Corinthians, with key decisions on the club’s direction still to be settled in the coming months.

Source: UOL