Could Botafogo face sporting sanctions over new transfer ban

Is there a risk of losing points?

To answer the question simply, yes!

A club can be punished with a points deduction or even relegation, but that does not happen immediately.

For Botafogo to suffer these more extreme punishments, the case must become one of “persistent non-compliance.”

According to FIFA rules, this means the club must remain punished for more than three consecutive transfer windows (without paying the debt).

In short, the situation is this:

• Current punishment: Botafogo is already under a transfer ban, meaning it is completely prohibited from signing and registering new players.
• Risk of losing points/relegation: this sporting punishment will only become a real possibility if Botafogo takes a very long time to pay these debts (exceeding the limit of three full transfer windows with the sanction still active) or commits repeated serious violations while ignoring FIFA.

If the club settles the debt or secures a validated agreement before that long deadline, it will be freed from the transfer ban and eliminate any risk of losing points or dropping a division.

Defense strategy

The Rio club is trying to use the ordinary courts to halt the sporting sanctions.

Botafogo has requested that FIFA’s punishments be submitted to a precautionary measure preceding its Judicial Recovery process (RJ).

The logic of the black-and-white SAF is that, under the umbrella of Judicial Recovery, creditor enforcement actions are frozen and debts must be renegotiated collectively within this legal framework.

The major obstacle for Botafogo is that transfer bans imposed before the formalization of this Judicial Recovery process, as in the cases of Atlanta United and Ludogorets, are not covered by FIFA’s freeze and must be paid normally for the ban on registering players to be lifted.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.