The long saga between Atlanta United and Botafogo over the payment of Thiago Almada’s transfer fee appeared to be finally coming to an end, but that might not be the case. According to reports from O Globo in Brazil early Tuesday morning, Botafogo had “reached an agreement” with Atlanta United to pay the MLS-record $21 million it is owed from Almada’s transfer to the John Textor-owned outfit in July 2024.
However, according to Joe Patrick and Doug Roberson, that’s not the case: no agreement has been reached. That means Botafogo will face a transfer ban until Atlanta receives what they are owed, plus interest, incentives, and sell-on fees. That total equates to over $31.5 million.
Botafogo announced on Dec. 9 a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that the club must pay the amount owed or face a transfer ban from FIFA. The deadline to do so has passed, but despite O Globo reporting Botafogo and CAS have reached an “understanding” that the amount will be paid “in the coming months,” Botafogo is not out of the woods yet. Indeed, FIFA has updated its database showing the transfer ban in effect as of Dec. 31.
Almada, of course, is now with Atletico Madrid, signing with them in July on a five-year deal. His time signed to Botafogo, which included a loan to the Textor-owned Lyon in Ligue 1, lasted about a year.
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I wonder if Botafogo is considering declaring bankruptcy and folding to avoid paying the fee, sitting out a year, then reorganizing and playing again in 2027. Not sure what the FIFA rules would be, nor do I know anything about Brazilian bankruptcy law or that club’s ownership structure.
It seems at this point they are determined to not pay anything.
pretty sure a pro soccer team can’t just fold. Pro teams around the world are very different from the way US pro teams work. I would assume FIFA/Brazilian league would force the ownership group to sell the team.
The “punishment” should also include a potential ban of Textor owning any interest in any football club if the amounts are not paid within X days, or maybe AtlUtd should be allowed to take X number of players from Botofogo and Lyon on “free” transfers. The transfer ban is somewhat of an idle threat since at this point, what club would ever consider a sale of a player knowing that they probably will not get paid.
The only problem I have with your idea is I don’t like forcing players to come here if they don’t want to be here. Probably wouldn’t work out well anyway if that’s the case.
Some additional options that make sense to me are point penalties in their respective standings until they pay; Or forced sale of some/all of their players, with the proceeds going to pay their debt. (Similar idea to yours, except players have some agency on where they go). The hard part with that second idea is that, just like a foreclosure, the buying clubs are all going to know their situation, so it makes it a lot easier for them to lowball.
In the end, the only “cure” may be a forced sale of Textor’s interests, with the proceeds being used to pay Atlanta (since prior court decisions do not seem to influence him) – but I am not sure that FIFA has the ability to force the sale. It seems that Textor doesn’t care whether or not the club can have transfers.
If you don’t have cash in hand, i’m not selling. Surprised this has been allowed for this long.
They needed time to check under all the couch cushions for the extra money they needed to pay the fee, I guess.
“reaches understanding” I thought they had a contract…
I’ll believe it when Atlanta announced that they received the money