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A record-breaking sponsorship contract between Brazilian football team Corinthians and Curaçao-based Vaidebet has been officially terminated.
Vaidebet inked the deal in January to secure a three-year master sponsorship contract worth R$370m (US$71m), a record for any Brazilian football team. At the time, the operator was nearly completely unknown.
Now, after an investigation by a local sports journalist into a potential dirty money operator acting as an intermediary in the deal, the agreement has been terminated, reportedly through Vaidebet exercising a clause in the contract that related to its authority to protect its brand.
Corinthians said in a statement it "regrets that the commercial partner ended the biggest sports marketing agreement in Brazil — from which the company benefited to the point of rising from an unknown bookmaker to second place in the sector in just five months — without there being any conclusion to the investigations related to the negotiating intermediary”.
In a press conference, Corinthians president Augusto Melo complained that there was “nothing proven” over allegedly fraudulent payments involving an intermediary in the deal.
“This [Vaidebet case] will be clarified, there are already testimonies that say they have proof and there isn't any. Those who leaked it will be criminally prosecuted,” Melo added.
In another Corinthians statement, the team stated that “Corinthians is the most interested party in resolving the issue. For this reason, it is sparing no effort to ensure that the facts are clarified, whether by its means, by third parties, or by collaborating with the authorities.”
Separately, in other football-related corruption news, Brazilian West Ham player Lucas Paquetá is preparing to defend his name after being accused of spot-fixing by the English Football Association for several instances of allegedly receiving a yellow card in games.
Paquetá says he has evidence that he asked not to play in a match in which he later incurred one of the yellow cards in question. Paquetá has asked why he would request to be excused from a game if he had plans to purposefully incur a penalty.
He is expected to still play for the Brazilian national squad in the coming Copa America, even though he will be summoned to testify before an ongoing congressional investigation into alleged match-fixing in Brazilian football, at the insistence of Brazilian federal senator Jorge Kajuru.
