When tragedies happen in football, it’s great to see how clubs all over the word show some solidarity and get together in such a hard time.
But things get ugly when it comes to money. It happened with Chapecoense, then with Emiliano Sala, and now with Flamengo.
The Brazilian side promised support to the families of the ten boys who were killed in a fire at the club’s training centre in early February, but are now struggling to pay what’s being demanded.
As reported by Globo Esporte, what the families are asking is simple. Each want a payment of R$2m (£410k), and a monthly payment of R$10k (£2k) for 30 years.
These amounts were suggested by the public ministry and accepted by the families. However, during the negotiations, Flamengo have offered much less.
Flamengo initially offered a first payment of between R$300k and R$400k (£61k and £82k) and a monthly payment of a minimum wage, which is currently of R$1k (£200) for only ten years. Globo Esporte says the offer for the first payment was later increased to R$700k (£143k) but that was still far from what had been recommended.
If we sum it all up, the total amount of the demands for all the ten players is of R$56m (£11.5m).
A month ago, Flamengo paid R$63.7m (£13m) to sign Giorgian de Arrascaeta from Cruzeiro.
So in the club’s view, the lives of ten boys and the lost benefits of the future are worth much less than the signing of a 24-year-old Argentine midfielder.
