Brasileiro club Fluminense "will have to fill a funding gap to keep players, including league top scorer Fred," after its sponsor of 15 years said it will not renew its contract, according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. Pedro Daniel, an economist who analyzes the country’s football industry for auditor BDO Brazil, said that health insurer Unimed-Rio contributes about 100M reais ($38.4M) to the 111-year-old club, "which is about 70 percent of its revenue." Unimed said in a statement the decision to end the partnership "is the result of a review of the company’s marketing strategy." Daniel said that the income from Unimed has "helped Fluminense attract talent" that it normally would not be able to afford. The Rio de Janeiro-based team pays players’ base salaries while Unimed pays for their image rights, "which can be six times more than salary." Unimed "credited its association with Fluminense for turning it into Rio’s leading health insurance provider." Finding a new sponsor "will not be easy." Five of the league’s 20 teams "ended the season without a principal partner" and 40% relied on backing from state bank Caixa Economica Federal. Several teams have not been able to pay player salaries this season and the government "is working on legislation to force teams" to pay back 4B reais ($1.5B) in unpaid taxes. Daniel said, "The market for sponsors is very bad. It’s not a good idea to put your branding with management that’s not transparent and don’t follow good practices" (BLOOMBERG, 12/10).
