Ex-President Andrés Sánchez Expelled from Corinthians Members Roll
BRAZIL · FOOTBALL GOVERNANCE
Saturday, May 30, 2026 — 03:00 BRT — By Oliver Mason
—The decision: The Corinthians council expelled Andrés Sánchez from the club’s member roll on Monday at the Parque São Jorge headquarters.
—The vote: The result was 112 in favour, 49 against, and 6 abstentions, with 167 council members voting.
—The reason: An ethics-commission report found around R$480,000 ($95,000) of corporate-card spending during his 2018 to 2021 presidency lacked documented institutional purpose.
—The challenge: Sánchez’s legal team called the procedure irregular, citing the same official chairing both the ethics commission and the vote, and an open ballot where the statute calls for secret.
—Latin American impact: The vote tightens governance precedent across Brazilian football clubs at a time of major foreign-investment activity in the sector.
The Corinthians council voted on Monday to expel Andrés Sánchez, twice the club’s president, from its member roll. The 112-49 result, with six abstentions, removed one of the most powerful figures in Brazilian football from the club he led for nine of the past nineteen years. The Corinthians expulsion concerns roughly R$480,000 ($95,000) in corporate-card spending during his third presidency that the ethics commission found inadequately documented.
How Andrés Sánchez was expelled from Corinthians
The session was held at Parque São Jorge, the club’s social headquarters in the Tatuapé district of São Paulo. Council members debated the ethics-commission report for several hours before the vote, with Sánchez represented by three lawyers and not attending personally.
The vote total was 167 council members. 112 voted in favour of expulsion, 49 voted against, and six abstained. The recommendation from the ethics commission, signed unanimously, had concluded that the spending in question constituted conduct incompatible with the statutory duties of a club member.
Council president Leonardo Pantaleão said after the session that the ethics commission’s findings could not be treated as a mere bureaucratic irregularity and that the case compromised institutional credibility. The vote was open and nominal rather than secret.
The R$480,000 ($95,000) corporate-card case behind the Corinthians expulsion
The ethics commission examined corporate-card spending between August 2018 and February 2021, during Sánchez’s third term as club president. The total under review was around R$480,000 ($95,000) at the current Banco Central do Brasil rate of about R$5.03 per dollar.
Sánchez’s defence argued that he used the club’s corporate card by mistake, confusing it with a personal card from the same bank, and that the Corinthians had no formal internal policy regulating corporate-card use at the time. He also said that some of the spending was institutional in purpose and that part of the amount had been reimbursed to the club.
The ethics-commission report concluded that Sánchez did not provide sufficient documentation of institutional purpose for the contested transactions. The Corinthians statute requires club members to demonstrate proper use of corporate resources, the commission noted.
The Sánchez challenge to the Corinthians expulsion
The legal team representing Sánchez issued a statement of formal disagreement after the session. The firm Fernando José da Costa Advogados, which handles his defence, said the procedure was marked by serious irregularities.
The two specific points raised concern the conduct of the session itself. The first is that council president Pantaleão also chaired the ethics commission that produced the expulsion recommendation, then presided over the council session that voted on that recommendation. The defence argues this is a conflict of process.
The second is that the vote was open and nominal, with each council member’s vote recorded by name. The defence cites the club statute as requiring a secret ballot for expulsion proceedings, with the open format unauthorised by the convening notice.
Who Andrés Sánchez is in Brazilian football
Sánchez served twice as Corinthians president, from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2018 to 2020. He led the political faction Renovação e Transparência, which controlled the club for sixteen years and is one of the most consequential governing groups in the modern era of Brazilian football.
The 2012 Libertadores triumph and the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup were won during his first presidency. He was also federal deputy for São Paulo state from 2015 to 2019, a biographical detail that has surfaced in discussion of his broader public profile but is unconnected to the council vote.
He retains a separate position as a lifetime council member with a seat on the Conselho de Orientação (CORI), distinct from the associate-member status that the expulsion removes. The CORI seat will be the subject of a separate procedural assessment.
Background: the Brasileirão.
What the Corinthians expulsion means beyond the club
The decision lands at a moment of structural change in Brazilian football governance. Several large clubs have converted to the Sociedade Anonima do Futebol corporate model since 2021, and foreign capital, including the Saudi royal investment in Inter de Limeira announced this week, is reshaping ownership norms.
The Corinthians has not converted to a SAF and remains under the traditional associative-club model. The Sánchez vote sets a precedent for how the statute can be applied to former presidents under that older model, in a way that the SAF clubs handle through corporate-governance frameworks instead.
Sánchez retains the right to challenge the decision in court, and the procedural objections raised by his defence are likely to form the basis of any judicial action. The result of any subsequent legal process will not change the council vote but could affect its enforceability.
What did the Corinthians council vote on?
A motion to expel former president Andrés Sánchez from the club’s associate-member roll, following an ethics-commission recommendation. The result was 112 in favour, 49 against, and 6 abstentions out of 167 votes cast.
What is the spending figure under review?
Around R$480,000 ($95,000) in corporate-card transactions between August 2018 and February 2021 during Sánchez’s third presidency. The ethics commission found insufficient documentation of institutional purpose.
What does Sánchez say in response?
He says the card was used by mistake, that the club had no internal regulations for corporate-card use, that some spending was institutional, and that part of the amount was reimbursed. His lawyers also dispute the session’s procedure as a separate ground.
Does this affect his other club positions?
It removes his associate-member status. His lifetime seat on the Conselho de Orientação is a separate position and will require a separate procedural assessment.
Will he challenge the expulsion in court?
His legal team has signalled it will pursue further action on the procedural grounds it raised. Any court process would test the council’s authority but would not by itself reverse the vote.
For more on Brazilian football ownership, read our piece on the Saudi royal investment in Inter de Limeira. For the continental view, see our coverage of the Libertadores 2026 round of 16 draw.
The Rio Times — Saturday, May 30, 2026 — 03:00 BRT — By Oliver Mason
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