Co-founder of Fatal says sponsorship of Corinthians seeks to 'naturalize' adult content

"When you place the brand of an adult website in a prestigious place, alongside brands that have reliability, this reliability passes to it by osmosis", assesses the company's co-founder and business director, Samuel Ongaratto, in an interview with the report. "That's why we made this investment in Corinthians. Because, if we calculate the return on this investment, there is no account that justifies it", he explains.

Fatal Fans is a subscription site for adult content - erotic or pornographic photos and videos - produced by women, men and couples, using a model similar to OnlyFans. Through the platform, users can subscribe to individual profiles to access this material, while the company retains 15% of the value of each transaction. According to Atlas Technologies, owner of the brand, the site brings together around 30 thousand content creators and receives 7 million visits per month.

Fatal Models is a platform that brings together profiles of escorts and has already sponsored other football teams in the country, such as Vitória, with 30 million hits per month and is expected to earn R$180 million in 2026. On it, sex workers can create profiles for free and pay to boost their pages. Transactions are made directly between users and companions, without mediation from the company.

The R$22 million contract signed between Corinthians and Fatal Fans until 2027 was closed amid the club's financial crisis, whose debt ranges between R$2.4 billion and R$2.7 billion.

The agreement gave strength to Corinthians' cash flow, but it also launched the team into a national controversy over the limits of advertising in sport and the protection of children and teenagers from fans.

According to Ongaratto, the strategy of seeking credibility for the brand on fields and courts has the potential to make "people who wanted to, but didn't have the courage to access the website for fear of it putting a virus on their computer, have the peace of mind to access it".

At the same time, this method gives fuel to one of the main criticisms of sponsorship: that exhibiting a brand linked to the adult market in one of the biggest clubs in the country would also reach millions of children and teenagers who follow football.

This concern motivated representations forwarded to the Public Ministry of São Paulo, after a history of legal battles in Alagoas based on articles of the ECA (Child and Adolescent Statute) that touch on the issue by determining the protection of this public against content inappropriate for their age.

Bills were also filed to prohibit advertising of adult content in public spaces and those administered by the State and at sporting events. The authors are state deputy Maria Helou (PSOL) and federal deputies Sâmia Bonfim (PSOL-SP) and Tábata Amaral (PSD-SP).

"I would be more worried about a child at the football stadium seeing the big uncle next door cursing the judge's mother than about an advertisement about which I think it would be unlikely that they would ask anything", suggests the businessman.

"This is a legitimate debate that should be carried out by society, but sometimes it is full of prejudices. Our advertising is not aimed at children, it is not sensual, it is not inappropriate in its current form", he argues.

"We have never created an advertisement inviting people to access the website or hire a companion or objectifying people's bodies. That is our policy."

Ongaratto stated that Fatal Models implemented an age measurement system to prevent access to minors under 18 years of age. When informed, however, that the reporter had accessed both Fatal Models and Fatal Fans without any age verification, he explained that the resource was only operating in Maceió.

"We were the first company to implement this system, in March, when the [ECA Digital] law came into force. But the ANPD [National Data Protection Agency] informed that the inspection of adult websites would only begin in January of next year. We were left alone in the market operating with age measurement", said the businessman.

According to him, the company alerted the agency to what it classified as a "competitive imbalance" and decided to temporarily suspend the system while it improved the tool. "We took advantage of this time to make the age measurement system more robust," he said.

The content of Fatal Fans, sponsor of Corinthians, is closed. "To have access, you have to pay. And, at the time of payment, there is not only an age measurement, but also user identification. And if the user is under 18, the purchase is reversed", he guarantees.

Upon hearing from the reporter that the platform's home page already displays images of strong sexual appeal, the businessman stated that the company seeks to remove "more eroticized" images and compared this type of content to that commonly found on social networks. At the same time, he defended the need for debate on specific rules for advertising in the sector, along the lines of betting house regulation, and not the ban on sponsorship.

When contacted, Corinthians informed, in a note, that it made sure, before signing the contract, that Fatal Fans operated in accordance with ECA Digital and that its content could only be accessed through subscription made by people of legal age under CPF verification. It also informed that there will be no active communication inviting people to the website or advertising "with connotations of objectification or eroticization".

Although he maintains that the objective of sponsorship is to reposition the brand's image, and not to increase the number of hits, he recognized that the repercussion tends to produce commercial effects. "Every controversy generates curiosity."

When it came to the compulsive consumption of pornography, something that has grown