In Santos, where the club’s return to Brazil’s top flight was meant to open a new chapter, an old managerial departure has become an expensive and final legal obligation. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld the compensation owed by Santos FC to Portuguese coach Pedro Caixinha and members of his staff following the end of their contracts in April 2025.
The ruling confirms the earlier FIFA decision and brings Santos to the end of the sporting appeal process. The overall amount is reported to be close to US$2.8 million, with payment required in full rather than through instalments. An earlier FIFA assessment had put the liability at around 13 million Brazilian reais, approximately €2 million, including compensation for Caixinha’s coaching team.
Santos now move from litigation to compliance. Failure to settle the debt could leave the Brazilian club facing a fresh transfer ban, preventing it from registering or signing players at a time when squad planning remains central to its Serie A project.
A brief spell that led to a long dispute
Caixinha arrived at Santos in late December 2024, appointed to lead the side into the 2025 campaign after its promotion back to Serie A. His time on the São Paulo coast lasted until 14 April 2025, when the club announced his departure.
Across 16 competitive matches, spanning the Campeonato Paulista and the opening phase of the season, the Portuguese coach recorded six wins, three draws and seven defeats. The dismissal subsequently produced the contractual case that FIFA ruled on roughly a year ago and that Santos unsuccessfully sought to overturn in Lausanne.
After leaving Brazil, Caixinha returned to Mexico late in 2025 to take charge of FC Juárez’s Bravos. That spell also ended with his dismissal after poor results, but the Santos case remains the more consequential matter: a multimillion-dollar debt whose sporting consequences may yet extend into the transfer market.
