Directors of Brazil's top football clubs have begun discussing an extreme measure against the government's ban on sports betting companies: halting the Brasileirão, the national championship. According to a column by Marcel Rizzo in the newspaper Estadão, the idea surfaced in phone calls and messages on Monday night, September 28, as club presidents organized a boycott of a meeting with government officials set for Tuesday. The meeting was called off after most presidents said they would not attend.
The fight has also reached Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF). The national union of professional football clubs and state federations, known as Sinafut, has asked Justice Luiz Fux to join a case that challenges Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, a decree with the force of law that banned betting companies in the country. The lawsuit was filed by ANJL and IBJR, two industry associations representing the betting firms, known in Brazil as "bets". Sinafut wants the measure suspended until Congress votes on it or until the court rules, or failing that, a six-month transition period. The filing was first reported by Metrópoles and confirmed by O Globo.
"The budgets for 2027 and the state championships, which start in January, are being decided now. A transition that covers the end of the 2026 season is the minimum compatible with sports planning," Sinafut argued in its filing.
The money at stake explains the alarm. According to O Globo, 14 of the 20 clubs in Serie A, the top division, have a betting company as their master shirt sponsor, and the market is worth about R$ 1.1 billion to Brazilian football in 2026. The betting firm Betano holds the naming rights to both the Brasileirão and the Copa do Brasil, the two biggest national competitions. Santos has already moved: as reported by ge, Globo's sports outlet, the club suspended its deal with Novibet, worth R$ 35 million over three seasons, and will face São Paulo on October 2 without its master sponsor on the shirt.
Refusing to take the field aims at two targets, according to Estadão. The first is to pressure the government to go beyond the low-interest credit line already under negotiation and grant a transition period, from six months to a year, before betting advertising must end. The second is to drag the CBF, Brazil's football confederation, which had stayed on the sidelines, into the fight: a shutdown now would wreck the packed national calendar through December, something the confederation cannot accept. Two CBF vice presidents, Ednailson Rozenha and Ricardo Glock, sit on the Sinafut board, which some directors already read as the confederation joining the battle.
The government announced the suspension of betting companies on Friday, September 25, at an event with President Lula and Finance Minister Dario Durigan. Under the provisional measure, platforms have until 11:59 p.m. on October 5 to return balances to bettors, and from October 6 their sites and apps must go offline. Canceling the meeting did not end the financial rescue plan, but the clubs want breathing room: many still have payments due in 2026 to close the season's books, and they argue their 2027 budgets will also take a hit.