Flamengo sees stadium site auction suspended

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A football club Flamengo has suffered a blow in its effort to secure land for a proposed new 80,000-seat stadium after a scheduled auction for the site in question was suspended.

The 7^th Federal Court of Rio de Janeiro yesterday (Tuesday) issued an injunction ordering the suspension of the auction that was due to take place today. Judge Marcelo Barbi Gonçalves accepted a class action lawsuit, filed by Vinícius Monte Custodio, to consider null and void the decree of the City of Rio de Janeiro that expropriated the site at the end of last month.

The site identified formerly housed the São Cristóvão Gasômetro and has been managed by financial services group Caixa Econômica Federal since 2009. Flamengo expressed an interest in taking over the 86,000 square-metre site back in 2022.

Earlier this month, the City scheduled an auction for the package of land. The auction was due to be held on July 31, with the minimum bidding price for the land being set at R$138.195m (£19.19m/€22.74m/$24.62m). Although Flamengo isn’t the only interested party in the site, it is in the box seat to secure it, with the club’s Deliberative Council giving the green light to participating in the auction on Monday.

Custodio, a Flamengo fan and lawyer by trade, took action after questioning the process by which the land could be acquired by the club from the state-owned Caixa. In the decision, reported by Lance!, the judge stated that the City cannot “expropriate assets owned by a federal public company, without prior authorisation from the President of the Republic, even if they are not used directly in the provision of a public service”. The judge therefore deemed the “risk of damage or risk to the useful result of the process is established”.

Globo Esporte noted that the suspension of the auction comes after Caixa earlier failed in its appeal for an injunction. In its appeal Caixa argued that “the public administration used an extreme measure of intervention in the property to interfere in ongoing private negotiations and favour a specific football club, which has already been publicly declared the winner of the auction, even before it took place”.

Flamengo is seeking to build an 80,000-seat stadium at Gasômetro but has faced obstacles in recent years as negotiations with Caixa did not progress. However, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, who is a fan of Flamengo’s rivals Vasco da Gama, has moved to progress talks to deliver a new stadium.

A new stadium would mean that Flamengo would ultimately move out of the Estadio de Maracanã which has been its home since its construction in 1950. The Rio de Janeiro State Government last month confirmed that a consortium formed by Flamengo and Fluminense had been awarded a contract to manage the Maracanã for the next 20 years.

The Fla/Flu Consortium had appeared set to land the contract in May after submitting a higher bid than a proposal put forward by Vasco and the WTorre conglomerate. The contract covers the Maracanã Complex, which includes both the iconic stadium and the Maracanãzinho arena. Flamengo and Fluminense had already been operating the complex after signing a new short-term deal with the State Government back in November.

While seeking to secure long-term control of the Maracanã, Flamengo has never hid its long-term ambition to secure its own home. Flamengo president Rodolfo Landim in May detailed his vision for a new 80,000-seat stadium for the club, signalling his intention to buy the necessary land by December.