History of Sport Club Corinthians Paulista - Corinthians/MSI (2005-2007)

Corinthians/MSI (2005-2007)

The club's situation in early 2004 was among the most difficult in its history. Bad administration, lack of money and terrible campaigns both in the 2003 Brazilian Championship and in the 2004 São Paulo State Championship caused its millions of supporters to worry. Fortunately, some young players and a new manager Tite helped the team to improve from their terrible start. At the end of the championship, Corinthians finished in 5th place and gained entry to the Copa Sudamericana (a minor continental championship).

This situation was one of the factors which enabled Corinthians' president, Alberto Dualib, to convince the club's advisors to sign a controversial deal with an international fund of investors called Media Sports Investment. The deal granted the company a large degree of control over the club for 10 years in exchange for large financial investments in return. This has brought many quality players to the team, such as Carlos Tévez, Roger, Javier Mascherano and Carlos Alberto.

Despite the MSI investiments, Corinthians had a slow start in the 2005 state championship, but managed to improve as it progressed, eventually managing to finish second. Their start to the Brazilian championship during 2005 was difficult, too, but after Daniel Passarella's dismissal (due to an unexpected 5-1 loss to Corinthians' rivals, São Paulo), the club finished the championship well, and were eventually crowned Brazilian Champions for the fourth time, after some controversial annulment of eleven games due to a betting scandal.

The relationship between Corinthians' managers and the MSI president, Kia Joorabchian is not good, and after being eliminated in the Copa Libertadores de América, the club experienced a crisis which was responsible for the bad performances for the rest of 2006. Is still unknown whether the partnership will continue for the coming years and whether the club will get more funds to sign new players, although Kia Joorabchian has left the partnership.

On December 2, 2007, following a 1-1 draw away to Grêmio, Corinthians were relegated to the second division for the first time in Brazilian football history.