Marina Sarruf*
marina.sarruf@anba.com.br
São Paulo – Like the Brazilians, Arab youths also dream of becoming football stars like Pelé, Ronaldinho, Kaká and Romário. To try to realize this dream, the government of Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, in partnership with Fator Bank and Brazilian holding company Liyen Corporate are going to take the Pelé Campus to the Arab country. "It is a sports and educational project, to be like a football university," stated Aline Müller Carlotto Silveira, one of the partners at Liyen Corporate.
According to her, the idea is to take technicians and future Brazilian talents to teach and train at the Pelé Campus. "We also want to work on cultural and sports exchange, bringing Arabs to Brazil," added Aline. Although the initiative behind the project is by the government of Abu Dhabi, the site for construction of the campus has not yet been defined.
"This project is going to grant to Brazil greater global visibility. We are going to show the best football the country has in the best possible manner," stated Aline, who did not stipulate the cost of the project. "It is an ambitious project of millions of dollars," she stated. To seal the closing of the deal, the Liyen partners and Fator Bank representatives are going to take Pelé himself to the United Arab Emirates in November.
Pelé Camnpus in Brazil, which is being built in the city of Jundiaí, in the interior of the southeastern Brazilian state of São Paulo, has as one of its financers Fator Asset Management, a foreign subsidiary of Fator Bank. In Brazil, the campus is going to invest in Brazilian players. Youths should be trained to play abroad, and for this reason the campus will have a foreign language training centre and management lessons to train them to manage their money. In the Emirates, where the campus is a government project, Pelé will be a training centre whose objective will be to teach people how to play football.
In recent years, many Brazilian players are playing for Arab teams in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Apart from players, Brazil has also exported coaches to the Arab world, like Carlos Alberto Parreira and Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo, both coaches who have previously managed the Brazilian Team in World Cups.
Liyen and Fator
One of the Liyen Corporate objectives is to promote business between Brazilian and Arab companies. The holding, which operates in São Paulo, London and Dubai, has already promoted the entry of many Brazilian companies in the Arab market, mainly in the food, cosmetics and medication sectors.
Fator Bank has many activities turned to advisory in the areas of privatisation, concession, financial projects, financial restructuring and mergers and acquisitions. The company started as a stock brokerage in the city of Rio de Janeiro in 1967 and is currently a multiple bank, acting as a commercial and investment bank.
*Translated by Mark Ament
