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# TCE-MG Upholds Suspension of R$32m Club Sponsorships
- URL: https://www.footballbusinessnews.com/tce-mg-upholds-suspension-of-r-32m-club-sponsorships/
- Published: 2026-11-13T11:20:11.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-13T11:41:10.000Z
- Description: Minas Gerais' audit court has upheld a precautionary freeze of R$32 million in state-company sponsorships for América, Atlético and Cruzeiro.
- Author: Football Business News
- Tags: Sponsorship, Regulation, Finance

The First Chamber of Minas Gerais' state audit court, the TCE-MG, on 10 November 2026 upheld a precautionary suspension of R$32 million in sponsorships from state-owned companies to América, Atlético and Cruzeiro, G1 reported. The money had been announced as compensation after Brazil's national ban on fixed-odds betting. The ruling is interim, not a final decision on the merits.

**Key facts**

- Counselors Telmo Passareli, Adonias Monteiro and Hamilton Coelho voted to uphold the injunction granted on 3 November by counselor Licurgo Mourão, G1 reported.
- The sponsorships, announced by governor Mateus Simões, were intended to display the brands of Cemig, the state energy company, and Codemig, the state development company, on the clubs' match kits.
- Governor-elect Cleitinho Azevedo filed the complaint that led to the suspension. Two other counselors recused themselves: Alencar da Silveira Junior, a former América president who sits on that club's board, and Agostinho Patrus, who sits on Atlético's board.
- The court said the main reasons for the freeze included the absence of technical studies showing an institutional return, a lack of objective criteria for the amounts, and doubts about the purpose of the funds.
- The injunction orders the companies not to sign sponsorship contracts with Minas Gerais football clubs until the merits are decided or the measure is revoked, and to halt payments if contracts have already been signed.

## What the court has frozen

The case is about public money being used to replace commercial income that clubs lost when Brazil prohibited fixed-odds betting. G1 reported that governor Mateus Simões had announced the R$32 million package as a way to offset those losses, with Cemig and Codemig branding due to appear on the match kits of América, Atlético and Cruzeiro, all organised as football joint-stock companies (SAFs).

That plan was challenged by the governor-elect, senator Cleitinho Azevedo of the Republicanos party, and was suspended on 3 November by counselor Licurgo Mourão. On 10 November the First Chamber confirmed that precautionary order. Mourão did not take part in the later session. The two recusals left the chamber with a three-counselor vote in favour of keeping the freeze in place.

G1 quoted a court note saying there were "indications that the values were defined based on the needs of the beneficiaries, and not on the business interests of the state companies, as the law requires." Silveira Junior, who did not vote, disagreed with the freeze, arguing that Cemig's advertising budget was already being spent on outdoors and media and that Minas Gerais club shirts have significant publicity value. That is his opinion, not the chamber's finding.

## Why the ruling matters for clubs and the betting ban

For the three Belo Horizonte clubs, the practical effect is that a promised state-backed shirt deal is on hold. If contracts were already signed, payments are supposed to stop immediately. If they were not, the companies cannot complete them until the court finishes its merits review or lifts the injunction. Either way, the clubs cannot treat the R$32 million as money in the bank.

The timing is the point. Brazil's national ban on fixed-odds betting has already put a large block of football sponsorship revenue at risk, as set out in this site's earlier report, [Brazil Betting Ban Puts R$1bn Football Sponsorship Revenue at Risk](https://www.footballbusinessnews.com/brazil-betting-ban-puts-r-1bn-football-sponsorship-revenue-at-risk/). The operators who were on the official register before that ban are listed in [85 Operators on Brazil's Official Betting Register Before the National Ban](https://www.footballbusinessnews.com/85-operators-on-brazils-official-betting-register-before-the-national-ban/). The Minas Gerais package was an attempt by a state government to fill part of that hole with public-company advertising. The audit court's objection is not to football sponsorship as such. It is that, in the court's preliminary view, the state companies had not shown a proper commercial case for these amounts.

That is a different legal track from the wider national debate over betting advertising, which is also covered in the site's list of [countries restricting football betting sponsorships](https://www.footballbusinessnews.com/7-countries-restricting-football-betting-sponsorships/). One is a prohibition on the betting product itself. The other is a public-finance test of whether state firms can step in as replacement shirt sponsors. The two are now colliding in Minas Gerais.

## What the complainants argued, and what comes next

Azevedo's office told G1 that the complaint also questioned sponsorships involving Cemig, Codemge, Codemig and Invest Minas. It pointed to the state's debt renegotiation with the federal government under the Propag programme, citing a R$179.3 billion balance refinanced over 30 years, and to press reports that the state ended 2025 with negative net cash of R$11.3 billion. Those figures were presented by the governor-elect's office, and the cash figure was attributed to published press reporting, not to a new court finding.

The 10 November decision does not settle whether the sponsorships are lawful. It keeps them frozen while the court examines the merits, or until the injunction is revoked. For América, Atlético and Cruzeiro, the commercial question is whether a revised, better-documented offer can be brought back, or whether the betting-ban hole in their shirt inventory will have to be filled by private sponsors instead.

Shirt and kit income remains one of the most visible commercial lines in football, as set out in the site's guides to [kit supplier deals](https://www.footballbusinessnews.com/the-biggest-football-kit-supplier-deals-in-2026/) and to [front-of-shirt sponsorships in other leagues](https://www.footballbusinessnews.com/premier-league-shirt-sponsors-2026-27-every-deal/). In Minas Gerais, the next move is the court's merits review, not a new announcement of the same R$32 million package.

**Sources**

- [G1, "TCE-MG mantém suspensão de patrocínio de R$ 32 milhões a clubes de futebol após fim das bets", 10 November 2026](https://g1.globo.com/mg/minas-gerais/noticia/2026/11/10/conselheiros-do-tce-mg-referendam-suspensao-de-patrocinio-de-r-32-milhoes-a-clubes-de-futebol.ghtml?ref=footballbusinessnews.com)