A belated move by FIFA to outlaw the practice of investment companies owning stakes in footballers will hit the Brazilian league hard, with many players' rights part-owned by third parties.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter said world football's governing body would back a campaign by European counterpart UEFA to ban so-called "third party ownership" (TPO), whereby firms have stakes in players' economic rights.
The practice is banned most notably in the English Premier League, but does exist in European leagues, including Spain and Portugal.
And it is very common in South America.
A notably controversial case came with the 2006 transfer to England's West Ham United from Brazil's Corinthians of Argentinian striker Carlos Tevez, whose registration was 'owned' by two offshore companies.
The Premier League fined West Ham over the case and that of compatriot Javier Mascherano -- who briefly joined the Hammers before moving on to Liverpool -- for infringing league rules over their contracts.
As many Brazilian clubs are struggling with debts the third-party ownership practice remains common.
"Of the 20 clubs in the Brazilian top flight, 80 percent of players (rights) belong to businessmen or investment funds," the daily O Globo reported on Saturday.
The paper added that if FIFA abolishes TPO "that will mark the end of an era."
Blatter said on Friday in Zurich that "we took the firm decision that TPO should be banned. But it cannot be banned immediately, there will be a transitional period and a working group... is working on that. It is very important."
UEFA chief Michel Platini had last March called on FIFA to act on the issue.
The transitional period will see a series of meetings to ensure it runs "as smoothly as possible," Brazilian lawyer Marcos Motta, working on studies to end the practice, told O Globo, which saw South American sides as "the big losers" from FIFA's move.
