TRANSPARENCY OR MARKETING STRATEGY: AN ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABILITY REPORTS OF 2012 AND 2013 PUBLISHED BY CORINTHIANS

Abstract

This paper intends analyze how the Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, traditional sports club founded in 1910 in Sao Paulo (SP), provides transparency in reporting of their sustainability reports published since 2009. To this end, the corpus of analysis are the 2012 and 2013 Sustainability Reports, years that marked the history of the club due to facts that are opposed by his extraordinary character. The year 2012 was marked by unprecedented glory as victories in the Copa Libertadores and the FIFA Club World Championship in its new format. Since the year 2013 was evidenced by unexpected tragedies, like the death of a Bolivian fan for starting the club in the Copa Libertadores and accidents involving workers in the construction of the new stadium of Corinthians, which would be used as one of the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. To see if there was balance between publications was used as a methodology content analysis and quantitative research. As a result it was found that the club was not fully transparent and non- paid accounts with a total balance through their Sustainability Reports, which did not show clearly and convincingly, positioning the Corinthians regarding the matters analyzed. Used for this purpose, the Sustainability Reports are just a marketing piece, whose purpose is only disclose euphoric manner the actions and activities of the organization. Finally, this paper aims to contribute to the studies on the use of transparency in reporting of sustainability reports, not exhausting the subject matter and leaving open topic for further analyzes.