Ponte Preta head coach Márcio Zanardi has warned that the Brazilian football club will be forced to close down unless it converts into a corporate SAF structure, following a 1-1 draw against Náutico at the Moisés Lucarelli Stadium in Campinas on Friday night, August 14.
The draw in the 22nd round of Série B kept the Campinas side anchored to the bottom of the second division standings, compounding a financial crisis in which some club employees have gone unpaid for more than a year.
Speaking after the match, Zanardi stated that the institution urgently needed financial capital and had to become a Sociedade Anônima do Futebol, or SAF, to avoid closure. He said that this reality existed regardless of individual leadership, emphasizing that the club required structural improvements, investment in personnel, and a clear path toward a better financial future.
Unpaid staff and training facility deficiencies
Zanardi explained that the difficulties at Ponte Preta extended far beyond delayed wages for the professional squad, pointing to severe shortcomings in day-to-day working conditions. He noted that the training fields at the club's preparation center required urgent maintenance work.
The head coach highlighted that while players and technical staff were affected by wage delays, lower-earning workers such as security guards and kitchen staff faced even greater hardship. Zanardi added that the squad was competing on the pitch to support those affected staff members.
Corporate restructuring in Brazilian football
In Brazilian football, a SAF is a special corporate legal model created to allow traditional non-profit sports associations to transform their professional football operations into commercial companies. The structure enables clubs to attract private investment, restructure accumulated debts, and modernize administrative operations under corporate governance standards.
Ponte Preta, based in the city of Campinas in São Paulo state and traditionally nicknamed Macaca, is one of the oldest active football clubs in Brazil. The club plays its home matches at the Moisés Lucarelli Stadium, which opened in 1948.
Sixteen matches without a win in Série B
The off-field financial turmoil mirrors a ruinous campaign on the pitch for Ponte Preta, coming after the team suffered relegation from the top tier of the Campeonato Paulista state championship in the first half of the year. The side has struggled to maintain form across both state and national competitions.
The Campinas team has now gone 16 consecutive matches without a victory in Série B, recording 13 losses during that run. With only 10 points from 22 league games, Ponte Preta remains in 20th place at the bottom of the table, facing an acute threat of relegation to Brazil's third-tier Série C.
