Everything you need to know to avoid requesting something unworkable without practical results.

“And it won’t be like an audit!”

I have lost count of how many times I have explained that a service provided would not be an audit. Despite all the technical aspects, understanding the differences is not very complicated. Yet, any effort to make it clear was in vain. The projects were called audits within the clubs, presented as audits in the media, and audited by all fans.

We can pinpoint moments in the relationship between Brazilian football clubs and Big4, and its history is relatively recent. It started when the Big6 existed, but precisely when the audit market went through the last concentration wave.

I remember that my first experience with a football club came when one of them joined one of the early tax recovery programs of the Brazilian Government (REFIS). Subsequently, opportunities arose with the arrival of football investment funds in Brazil, creating opportunities for financial diligence in the clubs.

At no time did clubs start being audited by Big6 or Big4. They were works of an advisory nature. As explained, accepting a club as an audit client was impossible. It went far beyond the price and credit risk or even reputational risk. The clubs were a mess. Impossible to be audited, simple as that.

There is a gap in this relationship between clubs and Big4 in Brazil due to several scandals in the Football segment.

While in Europe, specialized practices were created to accompany the football market’s professionalization, we have become quite distant from clubs.

Annual audits were imposed by law, and as of the mid-2000s, this market was conquered by small and medium-sized audit firms. Big4’s rapprochement came when the word “AUDIT” returned to the scene of political disputes within the clubs in the late 2000s.

Opportunities for financial diligence projects hired by recently elected management emerged to picture better the economic situation than inheriting. In the light of elder auditors, this could be called agreed-upon procedures. In the new view of multiple specialized practices within Big4, it was called an advisory service.

No, it was not an audit!!!

I will build on this experience to present what I believe is the best way to address club problems and, who knows, finally get audited by a Big4. I understand that the phased approach is the way to address club problems or try to resolve them. But it must be noted that to arrive at practical solutions; the project must have a technical orientation and a real focus on professionalization.

My experience in this segment is terrible, and I saw that most projects were conducted politically.

The practical result is that most clubs that tried to improve ended up worsening in the medium term. They had short gains and some sporting success, but they became even more insolvent or formed even more significant debts. I will try to address these issues throughout the Issues.