Francisco Manssur, centre, was invited by BOC to its headquarters ©Gabriel Baron/BOC

Brazil's special advisor to the executive secretary of the Ministry of Finance Francisco Manssur visited the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) headquarters to learn how Loterias Caixa's resources are invested.

In addition to seeing how the lottery helped to fund high-performance sport in Brazil, Manssur was also shown the work carried out by the entity as well as to visit its facilities including the main training centre in Rio de Janeiro.

"This initiative was important to present not only our work, but also an opportunity for them to get to know our training centre up close, which was a legacy of the 2007 Pan American Games and also used in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, in addition to showing how Loterias Caixa resources are applied," said BOC general director and Barcelona 1992 gold medal-winning judoka Rogério Sampaio.

"In these last 22 years of investments, everything we have today has been built, as is the case of training centre, which is where the athlete performs his preparation and makes it possible for him to achieve all his results sports."

The training centre was the starting point of Manssur's visit which saw him also visit under-construction facilities.

He was also taken on a tour of the COB's Olympic laboratory which, in 2022, carried out around 3,000 sporting evaluations in medicine, physiology, physiotherapy, biomechanics, and psychology.

Rogério Sampaio showed off the COB training centre to Francisco Manssur which he says is proof of the Rio de Janeiro 2007 Pan American Games' legacy ©Getty Images
Rogério Sampaio showed off the COB training centre to Francisco Manssur which he says is proof of the Rio de Janeiro 2007 Pan American Games' legacy ©Getty Images

COB directors then made a presentation detailing upcoming projects that are being planned.

They shared information about the 2022-2023 budget, how they use funds and transfer them to National Federations, and preparations for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

"I was very satisfied on this visit, not only as a representative of the Ministry of Finance, but also as a supporter of Brazilian sports, especially seeing the transparent and responsible way in which the BOC applies the resources that come especially from the lotteries," said Manssur.

"Regarding the allocation of these resources, it is now up to us at the Ministry of Finance to seek to expand this capacity and help sport, which is a public health, education and security policy."

Manssur is also a lawyer and is looking for ways to increase the amount kept from the lottery fund.

"The allocation of Lotteries has a percentage for transfer established by law," he said.

"So, the mission is to work together with operators to increase this flow of money."