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- 🦅 Corinthians fans pitch in
🦅 Corinthians fans pitch in
Fans of Corinthians have spent six months trying to help the popular São Paulo football club pay off its stadium debts — and have raised only 5% of the target
Euan Marshall
May 10, 2025 • Reading Time: 2 minutes
Crowdfund falls short, but Corinthians faithful show their power
The Corinthians support is one of Brazil’s biggest — and among the most passionates, as their multi-million crowdfunding effort showed. Photo: A. Paes/Shutterstock
The Gaviões da Fiel, the largest ultras group of super-popular São Paulo football club Corinthians, made a bold announcement in November last year. In partnership with public bank Caixa, the fan group launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay off the massive debt hanging over Corinthians as a result of the construction of the club's stadium, the Neo Química Arena, opened 10 years before.
Their idea was to demonstrate the power of the Corinthians fanbase, and that is exactly what they did. In the first day of the campaign, supporters chipped in with an astonishing BRL 7 million (USD 1.23 million); by the end of the week, the crowdfunding drive had already gathered BRL 28 million to put towards paying off the club’s stadium.
Celebrity supporters took to social media, showing proof of their donations to the cause. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — perhaps the most famous corintiano of all — pledged around BRL 1,000 from his own pocket.
With the feverish pace of early donations, the hefty BRL 700 million debt was on course to be wiped clean by the end of the campaign’s six-month running time.
