Corinthians faces five-day deadline to pay creditors R$10.1m
Corinthians has five days to prove it paid R$10.1 million in overdue instalments or risk losing court protection that could expose up to R$700 million of its assets to enforcement by creditors.
A São Paulo court has ordered Corinthians to show it paid creditors about R$2.5 million due in July and R$7.6 million due in August under a court-supervised repayment plan.Judge Tainá Maria de Oliveira set a five-day deadline that cannot be extended, with failure to comply potentially allowing creditors to resume individual enforcement actions against the club.São Paulo prosecutors said in a court filing: “A review of the judicial administrator’s technical reports and creditors’ submissions shows that Sport Club Corinthians Paulista’s compliance with the plan is reaching a point of critical financial strain, requiring judicial intervention to prevent the procedure from becoming a shield for its assets.”The arrangement, known as the Regime Centralizado de Execuções (RCE), brings claims together under a single repayment plan and suspends individual enforcement, with nearly R$240 million in obligations to agents, clubs and suppliers being paid in instalments since February.If the court lifts that protection, asset freezes and seizures could reach R$230 million in the short term, while Corinthians previously put its potential exposure at up to R$700 million in documents submitted to the court.The order also requires Corinthians, whose overall debt is estimated at R$2.8 billion, to provide bank statements for its stadium operations to substantiate a June payment of about R$26 million recorded in connection with Caixa Econômica Federal.The club must also provide its contracts with Nike and explain R$32.8 million in entries related to the kit supplier, as well as documenting its compliance with commitments made before the Brazilian Football Confederation’s dispute resolution chamber.The requests follow a 63-page report filed in October by the expert overseeing the repayment plan, who sought explanations for accounting entries without an identifiable corresponding entry, discrepancies in the stadium’s financial statements and a debt to Argentine club Talleres.Corinthians said it regarded the RCE as important to its financial reorganisation and would provide the requested documents and explanations to the court and the judicial administrator.Prosecutors are separately preparing a request for judicial intervention that, if granted, could lead to the appointment of an administrator to take over the club’s management.