A aquisição do Esporte Clube Bahia pelo City Football Group : reconfigurações institucionais, organizacionais e identitárias da Sociedade Anônima do Futebol

Abstract

Contemporary football has become an important economic, political, and social phenomenon, embedded in the dynamics of globalization and characterized by the growing involvement of international conglomerates in the management of sports clubs. In this context, this study aims to analyze how the acquisition of Esporte Clube Bahia’s Football Corporation by the City Football Group reconfigured its institutional, organizational, and identity structures. The relevance of this research lies in understanding the impacts resulting from the integration of a traditional Brazilian football club into a transnational sports governance network, contributing to the debate on the professionalization of club management, the preservation of institutional identity, and the role of international private actors in Brazilian football. To achieve this objective, a qualitative approach was adopted, based on a case study of Esporte Clube Bahia. The methodological procedures included a literature review, documentary analysis of the club’s bylaws, financial statements, annual reports, and other institutional documents, as well as semi-structured interviews with journalist and author Clara Albuquerque and journalist João Gabriel Leiro. The findings indicate that the implementation of the Football Corporation model promoted significant changes in governance, financial structure, administrative processes, and the club’s overall organization, expanding its investment capacity and strengthening its institutional stability. At the same time, the preservation of Esporte Clube Bahia’s historical identity was incorporated into the management project, demonstrating that organizational modernization and integration into a global corporate structure did not result, during the period analyzed, in the loss of the symbolic and cultural elements that define the club. It is concluded that the experience of Esporte Clube Bahia highlights the complexity of the relationship between sports governance, globalization, and institutional identity, contributing to a broader understanding of the recent transformations in Brazilian football.