During a press conference held at the CT Carlos Castilho, Fluminense president, Mário Bittencourt, addressed various topics and surprised everyone when asked about the advance sale of the future national football league rights, by revealing that the club hasn’t received payment for their participation in the FIFA Club World Cup held in Saudi Arabia last December.
According to the club’s president, FIFA was supposed to pay the amount in January, but the month is ending and the club has still not received the payment.
— This money is not an advance payment (from the league’s rights) but rather the purchase of 20% of the clubs’ television and commercial rights for 50 years. This is meant to be paid in installments. The investor advanced the first installment at the request of some clubs. Fluminense already received the first installment and there are others to be received. Fluminense has a single cash flow. It has different outcome centers. The money entered the club’s cash flow and was used by the club. Part of it paid salaries, Libertadores prize, debt, football logistics, day-to-day expenses. There is still a part remaining in the cash… If there is an investor to bring new money to the club, then it changes. It is meant to pay debts and invest in football. We won a huge prize from Libertadores. Part of it went to pay the prize and part of it is still in cash. We haven’t received the money from the Club World Cup yet. We have already paid for all the logistics (travel to Saudi Arabia, accommodations, etc). They made a promise to pay between the 20th and 25th of January, but we have not received it yet – he explained.
Fluminense was the runner-up in the FIFA Club World Cup. The Tricolor played two matches in Saudi Arabia. They defeated Al-Ahli (EGY) with a score of 2-0 in the semifinals and were defeated by Manchester City (ENG) in the final. The club was supposed to receive the amount of $4 million (approximately R$20 million) for the runner-up position.