Soccer in Brazil
Soccer is Brazil's national sport . For decades, Brazilian footballers have been considered particularly talented and inventive, the national team dominated international football in the late 1950s and 1960s and topped the FIFA world rankings published since 1993 with a one-year break from 1995 to January 2007.
With five world championship titles for the men's national team ( 1958 , 1962 , 1970 , 1994 and 2002 ), Brazil is the most successful football nation in the world. Many Brazilians such as Arthur Friedenreich , Garrincha , Pelé , Zico , Sócrates , Romário , Rivaldo , Ronaldo , Ronaldinho , Kaká and Neymar were and are among the best football players in the world. Among the women, the six-time world footballer Marta and her long-term strike partner in the national team Cristiane became well known.
Because of the immense size of the country, there were initially only several regional competitions and changing modes of execution for a national championship before an all-Brazilian league emerged. The big clubs are concentrated in Rio de Janeiro , São Paulo , Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre , resulting in frequent city derbies and intense city rivalry. Successful clubs are Fluminense , Flamengo , Botafogo FR and CR Vasco da Gama from Rio, Corinthians São Paulo , Palmeiras , FC Santos and FC São Paulo from São Paulo, Cruzeiro EC and Atlético Mineiro from Belo Horizonte, and Grêmio FBPA and SC Internacional from Porto Alegre. The clubs cannot keep up financially with the big European clubs, so that around 5000 Brazilian football professionals play in other leagues around the world. Players and clubs are organized in the Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF).
Association
The Brazilian Football Association Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF) was founded on August 20, 1914 (according to other information on June 6) as Federação Brasileira de Sports . In 1919 it was renamed Confederação Brasileira de Desportos and finally changed the name in 1979 to the current name. José Maria Marin has been president since 2012 , succeeding Ricardo Teixeira . In 1916 the CBF was one of the founding members of the South American football association CONMEBOL and has been a member of the world association FIFA since 1923 . The association is based in Rio de Janeiro. From 1958 to 1975 João Havelange was President of the CBF, who from 1974 was also President of FIFA for 24 years (until 1998).
Development of club football
First clubs and leagues
As in many other countries, an Englishman introduced football to Brazil. Charles William Miller , the son of an immigrant railway engineer, brought years of experience as a center forward in Southampton and two leather balls to São Paulo from his studies in England in 1894 .
English merchants made up the majority of the importers, engineers and manufacturers there and in Rio and had founded sports clubs based on the English model. Outside the cricket season , these elite clubs began playing football. In 1895 the first historically documented soccer game took place in Brazil and in 1901 the first encounter between an amateur team from São Paulo and members of a cricket club from Rio de Janeiro.
Football leagues soon emerged in the two big cities. The founding members already included today's top clubs Fluminense , Botafogo in Rio and Grêmio in Porto Alegre . In 1902, the São Paulo Athletic Club's English team won the first São Paulo championship and defended the title for the next two years. With the Club Athletico Paulistano , a Brazilian team succeeded for the first time in 1905 in breaking the supremacy of the English and becoming champions of São Paulo.
Bahia became the second state with a soccer championship in 1905 and the following year the federal district, the then capital of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro. The first championship was held in 1906.
For years football remained an elite sport and was initially dominated by the English. Numerous terms were borrowed from English, whereby the hard sounds were rounded off and adapted to one's own pronunciation: goal became gol (pronounced [ gɔːł ]), team changed to time [ ˈtʃimi ], the penalty kick was called penalty and football was turned into futebol [ futʃiˈbɔł ].
Immigrants of German origin also had a strong influence on early football in Brazil. Hans Nobiling , who came from Hamburg , founded the Sport Club Germânia as early as 1899 (forcibly renamed Esporte Clube Pinheiros during the Second World War ). In 1900 other people of German descent joined forces on the border with Uruguay in the Sport Clube Rio Grande , whose first official game took place on May 18, 1901 against the team of the English gunboat Nymphe . The locals won 2-1.
Football is becoming a popular sport
Football became a popular sport in the early 1920s. During this time the players of the better clubs were already semi-professionals. After massive pressure from the press, the clubs were obliged to accept Afro-Brazilian players from 1918 onwards.
The German-Brazilian Arthur Friedenreich (1892–1969) from São Paulo, whose mother was an Afro-Brazilian, became a symbol of Brazilian football around 1920 . Friedenreich began his career at the Germania sports club, where he was promoted by the most famous athlete in Brazil at the time, the football player, coach and athlete Hermann Friese .
The mulatto Friedenreich was only allowed to play in the first Brazilian national team because of his white German father , to which he was appointed in 1914 and with which he became South American champions in 1919 and 1922. Friedenreich and others had to straighten their curly hair to look white, and some even had to smear themselves with rice flour. Nevertheless, Friedenreich became the country's first major football star. In 1921 President Epitacio da Silva Pessoa ordered, fearing Brazil's loss of prestige, that no black people were allowed to play at the Copa America . However, when the defending champion was not successful and the public protested against the racist approach, he withdrew the regulation. Brazil won again. In total, Arthur Friedenreich played football actively for 26 years. In Brazil the fans called him Pé de Ouro (golden feet), in Uruguay El Tigre (the tiger) and in Paris Roi du Football (king of football).
The first professional club in Brazil was Vasco da Gama from Rio, who, even against bitter resistance from other clubs, relied on colored players and in 1923 won the Rio championship with three blacks, one mulatto and seven whites. Vasco's dominance lasted until 1950.
Introduction of professional football
In 1933, professional football was officially introduced with the Liga Carioca de Futebol in Rio de Janeiro. Nevertheless, given the size of the country, the Brazilian Football Association was not able to host a national championship for a long time. That is why Brazilian league football is still characterized today by a bewildering variety of championships and cup competitions, numerous mode changes and frequent renaming of the competitions. It was only from 1970 onwards that the infrastructural requirements allowed a nationwide championship.
League and cup competitions today
In addition to the four national leagues and the Brazilian Cup , there are numerous other competitions in the regions and cities in which the teams of the national league also take part. Since the best teams are also active in the South American continental competitions, the clubs are under high deadline pressure and the teams are on duty all year round without a break. Today, therefore, there is a tendency towards a simplification of the game operations, the regional cup competitions have already been largely abolished. The number of teams in Série A was successively reduced to 20 and since 2003 the champions have not been determined in a play-off round.
The season traditionally follows the calendar year. After the state championships are held until April / May , the season of the national leagues usually takes place from May to December. After fierce debates that were even held in parliament, the schedule should be adapted to the European leagues by 2007. However, that did not happen.
The number of spectators can vary greatly, especially at the regional championships, in which both the top clubs of the Campeonatos Brasileiro and teams from the Série B and Série C participate. The big derbies can attract 70,000 fans here, while on the same day of the match, more meaningless games of medium-sized and small clubs take place in front of a few hundred spectators. There are even games with 50 spectators.
The average of the paying viewers of the Série A in the years from 2007 to 2010 moved between almost 15,000 to around 17,700. For example, in the 2010 season game between Flamengo and Fluminense FC, ticket prices ranged between R $ 15.00 and R $ 70.00, an average of just under R $ 28.00 with almost 16,000 paying viewers. Another 3,000 tickets were given free of charge due to agreements with the stadium operator and for legal reasons. On very rare occasions, however, the prices can be increased significantly; For example, Fluminense doubled the entry price for the game that was decisive for the title on the last matchday in 2010 against the already relegated Guarani FC , which led to an average price per paying spectator of R $ 80.00. At the exchange rate at the time, this was around € 35. The legal minimum wage in the state of Rio de Janeiro in 2010 was around R $ 600.00 for workers. The record number of spectators in 2010 was achieved with 76,205 spectators at the game CR Vasco da Gama against Fluminense, nine other games attracted more than 40,000 spectators. Three times, in each case when relegated Gremio Barueri played , the number of spectators remained below 1,000; a total of 10 games took place in front of less than 2,000 spectators. Nationwide, the average ticket price paid was R $ 20.00.
National championship
The immense size of Brazil has historically been a major obstacle to holding national sports competitions. As an example, it should be mentioned here that a road connection between the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Santos , some 500 km apart, was not completed until 1975 . Only affordable flight connections made it possible to travel to games in other metropolises on a routine basis. Before that, there were more or less regular tournaments between the strongest clubs in various states, such as the famous Torneio Rio-São Paulo , which first took place in 1933.
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Official names of the Brazilian Championship:
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Even before that, there were supranational tournaments such as the Taça Ioduran played between 1917 and 1919 and the Copa dos Campeões Estaduais , the cup of national champions , which was held in 1920 and 1936, which the respective winners liked to celebrate as quasi national champions.
With the introduction of a competition comparable to that of the European Champions League , the Copa Campeones de América 1960, which in the further course of the decade mutated into today's Copa Libertadores de América , the need arose to introduce a national competition to determine the Brazilian participants. The predecessor organization of today's CBF, the Confederação Brasileira de Desportos , therefore held the Taça Brasil , the Brazilian Cup for the first time in 1959 , the first title holder of which was EC Bahia . In the 1960s, FC Santos dominated the competition for the legendary Pelé and was able to win half of all draws up to the end of the competition in 1968.
In order to determine a second participant in the Copa Libertadores, the Torneio Rio-São Paulo was expanded to include participants from other states in 1967 and henceforth traded as Torneio Roberto Gomes Pedrosa , or Taça de Prata ("Silver Cup"). The tournament was held until 1970 and the then extremely strong SE Palmeiras from São Paulo secured two of the four titles.
In 1971, the Campeonato Nacional de Clubes was the first to hold a competition that officially became the national championship. The name, mode of competition, number of participants and guidelines that decided on eligibility have changed over the years. In 1989 the term Série A came up for the first time , which was also used in 2004 with the introduction of a first division based on the European model. This league was expanded in the course of the decade with Série B and Série C by other national leagues. The Série D has been the fourth national performance class since 2009; However, this is not held in the classic league mode, but participants in play-off games are determined in regional groups, which ultimately decide on promotion.
In the years since 1971, the São Paulo FC and Palmeiras from São Paulo and CR Flamengo from Rio were the most successful with six titles each. Although the clubs that won the Taça Brasil and the Torneio Roberto Gomes felt themselves to be national champions and were often referred to as such by the press and the CBD, they were not recognized as such by the CBF for a long time. Only at the end of 2010 were the titles officially "united" - since then, Palmeiras has been the record holder of Brazil's title with ten championships and officially even won two national championships in one year due to the unification of the competitions in 1967.
Most successful clubs
Most of the top clubs come from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. So far, SE Palmeiras , FC Santos , FC São Paulo , Corinthians São Paulo , and Guarani FC from Campinas have won the Brazilian championship from São Paulo . The traditional association Portuguesa and São Caetano from the suburb of the same name in the metropolis came to be vice champions.
Brazilian champions from Rio are Flamengo , Vasco da Gama , Fluminense and Botafogo .
In addition to the top clubs from São Paulo and Rio, Cruzeiro EC and Atlético Mineiro from Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais , Athletico Paranaense and Coritiba FC from Curitiba in Paraná, as well as Grêmio and SC Internacional from Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul are among the stronger clubs of the Country. In addition to the clubs listed, the EC Bahia from Salvador da Bahia was able to distinguish itself and won two national championships. The city rival EC Vitória , one of the oldest clubs in Brazil, was runner-up once in the 1990s. The championship of Sport Recife , a traditional club from the capital of Pernambuco in 1987, is mainly due to the special circumstances of that season. Náutico , also from Recife, was in the final of the Taça Brasil in 1967. In the 1960s, the Fortaleza EC from Ceará also reached the final of the Taça Brasil twice.
Regional championships
Independent of the Campeonato Brasileiro, the state championships will be held in all 26 states and in the federal district of the capital Brasília in the first half of the year. Since there were no national competitions before 1959, these championships are the most traditional competitions in Brazil. The Campeonatos of São Paulo ( Campeonato Paulista , since 1902) and Rio ( Campeonato Carioca , since 1906) are also by far the most important due to the concentration of top teams. This is where the major Brazilian city derbies take place , such as the Fla-Flu duel between Flamengo and Fluminense or the Paulista derby between Corinthians São Paulo and Palmeiras São Paulo. But also at the Campeonato Gaúcho (Grêmio against Internacional in Porto Alegre), the Campeonato Mineiro (Cruzeiro against Atlético Mineiro in Belo Horizonte ) or the Campeonato Baiano in Salvador da Bahia ( Clássico Bavi : Bahia against Vitória) there are comparable duels.
Until the 1990s, the regional championships enjoyed almost as much recognition as the Brazilian championship. Today the Campeonatos Estaduais are losing importance and playing time from year to year, despite their tradition.
Copa do Brasil
In addition to the championship, there has been a national cup competition since 1989, the Copa do Brasil . 86 teams take part in the cup competition, which determine the winner in a knockout system with home and away games and partially qualify via the Campeonatos estaduais , the championships of the Brazilian states. The regional cup competitions Torneios regionais were given up in 2003. The Torneio Rio-São Paulo and the Copa Sul-Minas , in which football clubs from the three southern states and Minas Gerais participated, as well as the Copa do Nordeste (northeast) had a special tradition .
South American club competitions
The South American club competitions are clearly dominated by the Brazilian and Argentine teams. The four best teams from Série A are eligible to start directly for the Copa Libertadores , the fifth and sixth can qualify in qualifying games. In addition, the Brazilian cup winner qualifies for participation in the Copa Libertadores of the following year. In addition, the defending champion will be awarded a starting place in the follow-up event. The six best-placed clubs that have not qualified for the Copa Libertadores, regardless of the way in which they are made, will be awarded the right to start the Copa Sudamericana .
The eight groups of the Copa Libertadores , each with four teams, are headed by a Brazilian or Argentinian club. So far, the following teams from Brazil have won the title: Santos FC (1962, 1963, 2011), Cruzeiro EC (1976, 1997), CR Flamengo (1981, 2019), Grêmio Porto Alegre (1983, 1995, 2017), São Paulo FC (1992, 1993, 2005), CR Vasco da Gama (1998), SE Palmeiras (1999), Internacional (2006), Corinthians (2012), Atlético Mineiro (2013).
The title holder played for the World Cup against the winner of the European Champions League until 2004 . Then the World Cup was replaced by the Club World Cup . The Brazilian winners of the Copa Libertadores were able to defeat their European opponents quite often and have won several world cups: FC São Paulo (1992 2-1 against FC Barcelona and 1993 3-2 against AC Milan ), Grêmio Porto Alegre (1983 with a 2 : 1 a. V. against Hamburger SV ), Flamengo Rio de Janeiro (1981 3-0 against Liverpool FC ), FC Santos (1963 in three games against AC Milan, 4-2, 2-4, 1-0 and 1962 3-2 and 5-2 against Benfica Lisbon ). The three first Club World Cups were won by Brazilian teams: Corinthians São Paulo ( 2000 , in the final against Vasco da Gama, and in 2012 against Chelsea FC), São Paulo FC ( 2005 against Liverpool FC) and Internacional ( 2006 against FC Barcelona) .
From 1998 to 2001, the Brazilian clubs competed in the subordinate Copa Mercosul . The teams from Brazil dominated and made three of the four winners with Palmeiras (1998), Flamengo (1999) and Vasco da Gama (2000). The runners-up always came from Brazil: Cruzeiro (1998), Palmeiras (1999 and 2000) and Flamengo (2001). The Copa Sudamericana , which has existed since 2002, was conceived as the successor to the Copa Mercosul and the Copa Merconorte . Its concept is comparable to the Europa League (then the UEFA Cup) in European football. Brazilian teams have also been taking part in it since 2003. The previous title holders from Brazil are Internacional (2008), FC São Paulo (2012), Chapecoense (2016) and Athletico Paranaense (2018). The 2016 title was awarded to Chapecoense after a tragic plane crash that killed a large part of the team without hosting the finals.
From 1988 to 1997 the Supercopa Sudamericana was held. Cruzeiro was able to win this title in 1991 and 1992 and lost in the final in 1988 and 1996. São Paulo FC won in 1993 and finished second in 1997. Flamengo reached the final in 1993 and 1995, but lost each time.
National team
World championships
The Seleção (selection) is the only national team to have participated in all world championships and, with its five titles ( 1958 , 1962 , 1970 , 1994 and 2002 ), ahead of Italy and Germany (four titles each), is the most successful team in the world. Brazil ranks third in the FIFA world rankings (as of October 2019) .
Early Years and National Drama: 1930–1954
At the Football World Cup in Uruguay in 1930 , Brazil dropped out in the preliminary round and did not get past the round of 16 at the 1934 World Cup in Italy. The first major success came in France in 1938 when the Seleção reached third place. With Leônidas da Silva , who became the top scorer in 1938 and scored a total of nine World Cup goals, the first Brazilian footballer to achieve world fame. The top star Arthur Friedenreich , on the other hand, did not play a single World Cup game, as in 1930 only players from Rio took part in the World Cup in Uruguay due to disputes between the competing associations from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
After the Second World War, Brazil hosted the first title fights in 1950 and went into the tournament as the favorite in their own country. The team played confidently until the last game of the finals against Uruguay . A draw would have been enough to become world champion for the first time. But in front of the record crowd of 200,000 spectators in the Maracanã, the team that was certain to win was defeated by the small neighboring country, despite a 1-0 lead, 1: 2. The defeat in this game known as Maracanaço triggered a national trauma that, despite later successes, has an impact to this day. The white jerseys that Brazil played in back then were never used again. Instead, the team introduced the yellow and blue dress, which has earned it the nickname Os Canarinhos (the canaries).
At the 1954 World Cup , Brazil reached the quarter-finals, but lost 4-2 in a thrilling game to the Hungarian national team, which dominated world football at the time .
Three titles in four tournaments: 1958–1970
Brazil won the title for the first time at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Vavá , Garrincha , Didi and the only 17 year old Pelé were the stars of the team. The semi-final against France turned out to be one of the most spectacular games of this World Cup. Raymond Kopa and the thirteen-time World Cup scorer Just Fontaine on the French side were hardly inferior to the Brazilians. The Seleção won 5-2, made it to the final and left the Swedes no chance at 5-2 .
The team was able to repeat the title win at the 1962 World Cup in Chile with a 3-1 final victory against Czechoslovakia . A highlight was the quarter-final win against England (3-1). Vavá, Garrincha and Didi were again outstanding players of the tournament, Pelé injured himself in the preliminary round and could not be used afterwards.
The 1966 World Cup in England was extremely disappointing : the defending champion's outdated team was eliminated in the preliminary round behind Portugal and Hungary. Pelé was injured again early on.
With a strongly rejuvenated team around Pelé, they won the world championship title for the third time at the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. After a strong tournament in which world champions England could be beaten again in the preliminary round, Brazil safely won the final against Italy 4-1. In addition to Pelé, Jairzinho and Roberto Rivelino established themselves as big stars. After this third world title, the Coupe Jules Rimet was permanently owned by Brazil. However, it was stolen in 1983 and probably melted down. For Brazil, a 24-year waiting period began before they could finally celebrate winning a World Cup again.
Lean spell: 1974–1990
At the 1974 World Cup in Germany, the Seleção lagged behind Yugoslavia in the preliminary round and failed in the second round due to the outstanding Dutch around Johan Cruyff . In the game for 3rd place they lost to Poland 0: 1.
The preliminary round at the 1978 World Cup in neighboring Argentina was also disappointing. Brazil only made it into the second round as second behind Austria. There, however, the team only missed the finals due to the worse goal difference compared to the hosts . This time she won the game for third place 2-1 against Italy.
The 1982 World Cup marked the beginning of the era of an excellent team around the stars Zico , Sócrates , Falcão , Toninho Cerezo and Éder Aleixo , which, however, is remembered as the ingeniously unsuccessful generation without a title. After great football, the team failed in the second round on the later world champion Italy, who played effectively, and was eliminated. With Paolo Rossi the striker, who missed the playful Brazilian team played in the Italian team. Man-marker Claudio Gentile had neutralized Zico.
The 1986 World Cup in Mexico was similar . After another very good performance, the team was eliminated from a football classic against European champions France around Michel Platini in the quarter-finals after a penalty shoot-out. 1986 also ended an era in Brazilian football, coach Telê Santana and the top performers Zico, Sócrates, Falcão and Oscar resigned. Eder had been in such bad shape that he hadn't even been taken to the World Cup, and Toninho Cerezo had been eliminated from the national team in 1985 due to an injury. A new team was built around the players Taffarel , Dunga , Bebeto and Romário , which also won an important title with the 1989 Copa America .
At the 1990 tournament in Italy, the game even ended in the round of 16. Brazil was the only team to have won all the preliminary round matches and was one of the tournament favorites. In the round of 16 they met the defending champion and South American arch-rival Argentina. Argentina had struggled through the preliminary round and reached the round of 16 only as one of the four best third-placed. Brazil dominated the game, but missed a number of scoring opportunities. After a brilliant solo and assist from Maradona , Caniggia decided the game in the 80th minute for Argentina 1-0.
Return to success: 1994–2002
After almost a quarter of a century, the time had come at the 1994 World Cup in the USA , when the Seleção won the title for the fourth time. After the long time, winning the title seemed like a relief. With pragmatic results football and the strikers Romário and Bebeto , Brazil reached the final and had the nerve against Italy to win the penalty shoot-out after a 0-0 draw.
A repeat of this success was expected at the 1998 World Cup in France. The team also made it to the final on schedule after the Dutch were knocked out on penalties in a brilliant semi-final. The team's new star was 21-year-old Ronaldo, who scored four goals over the course of the tournament. In the final, of all places, he fell far short of his chances, the hosts led by Zinédine Zidane clearly won 3-0.
At the 2002 World Cup , Brazil made it into the final for the third time in a row, some of them happy. This was the first world championship encounter with the three-time world champion Germany , who was able to keep up with the high favorites for a long time. In the end, however, two goals from Ronaldo made the Brazilians their fifth title win. With eight goals, the star of the Brazilian team was the top scorer in this tournament.
Disappointments: 2006–2018
After Brazil's style of play had already been criticized in the preliminary round matches of the 2006 World Cup , France lost 1-0 in the quarter-finals. Again it was the French playmaker Zinédine Zidane who led the French to a deserved victory; Thierry Henry scored the winning goal for the French . Brazil started the tournament as a top favorite, but could not live up to expectations at any time. The disappointed Brazilian supporters see the reason for the failure mainly in the lack of homogeneity of the Seleção, the weakness of individual players as well as in the strategy of coach Carlos Alberto Parreira , who shied away from the old stars despite poor performances from the regular team to banish.
At the 2010 soccer World Cup , the Brazilian national team, who traveled to South Africa as the world's number one, failed to meet the expectations placed on them. With three lackluster Seleção games against North Korea (2: 1), Ivory Coast (3: 1) and Portugal (0: 0), Brazil were the first in the group to reach the round of 16 against Chile , which they clearly won 3: 0. In the quarter-finals against the Netherlands , Brazil gave up an early lead in the second half and lost 2-1. The renewed elimination in the quarter-finals, even more the unattractive games and the appearance of the highly paid stars on and off the pitch led to angry reactions from the fans. Coach Dunga , who was criticized, among other things, for not having stars like Ronaldinho and Adriano , resigned immediately after the tournament. His successor was Mano Menezes .
At the 2014 World Cup in their own country, the national team was able to end the preliminary round as group winners with two wins and one draw, but was hardly convincing in terms of play. Even in the opening game against Croatia, the team was on the verge of defeat and only got into the winning lane with a free penalty from Fred's Schwalbe . In the round of 16 against Chile, which was won after 1: 1 (1: 1, 1: 1) on penalties, the Seleção only narrowly escaped the World Cup knockout in the 119th minute when the opponent hit the crossbar : 1 victory in the quarter-finals against Colombia, the semi-finals could be reached, in which superstar Neymar was injured and defense chief Thiago Silva was absent due to a yellow card suspension. There was a 1: 7 (0: 5) -debacle against Germany after a desolate game performance. The game for third place against the Netherlands was also lost 3-0 (2-0) after another unusually poor performance by the Seleção.
At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Brazil was one of the favorites for the title in the run-up to the tournament. The team around Neymar, goalkeeper Alison Becker and central defender Thiago Silva were able to prevail more or less confidently in the group stage and also won the round of 16 against Mexico, but lost 2-1 in the quarter-finals against Belgium. National coach Tite remained in office, contrary to the usual habit of dismissing the coach after a World Cup he hadn't won, and was allowed to oversee the national team's upheaval project.
Copa America
The South American championship Copa América has been officially held since 1916 (every four years since 2007), making it the world's oldest competition for national teams. It is comparable to the European Championship . After 46 tournaments (as of 2019), Brazil is well behind Uruguay (15 titles) and Argentina (14 titles) with nine titles ( 1919 , 1922 , 1949 , 1989 , 1997 , 1999 , 2004 , 2007 and 2019 ). Brazil came second eleven times ( 1921 , 1925 , 1937 , 1945 , 1946 , 1953 , 1957 , 1959 , 1983 , 1991 , 1995 ) and third seven times.
Brazil hosted the Copa for the first time in 1919 and won its first title. The importance that football got with this tournament can be seen from the fact that President Epitácio Pessoa declared a national holiday after the victory. Later the Copa América took place in Brazil in 1922 , 1949 , 1989 and 2019 . This means that Brazil has already played the tournament five times and was able to decide each home tournament for itself. Only Argentina , Uruguay , Chile and Peru held more finals than Brazil.
Olympic games
For a long time, national teams from countries with professional leagues at the Olympic Games were effectively excluded from the medal ranks, since the state amateurs of the Eastern Bloc teams dominated the competitions due to the mandatory amateur status of the players . Since 1984 professionals who are not older than 23 years have been allowed to take part in the tournament. This regulation is very beneficial to Brazil with its great potential for talented young players. Nevertheless, the association has so far been less successful and was only able to win one gold ( 2016 ), three silver ( 1984 , 1988 and 2012 ) and two bronze medals ( 1996 and 2008 ) with its Olympic selection .
player
Stars
FIFA has officially awarded the FIFA World Player of the Year award since 1991 . So far, five Brazilian players have been honored with this highest single player title: Romário (1994), Ronaldo (1996, 1997, 2002), Rivaldo (1999), Ronaldinho (2004 and 2005) and Kaká (2007). In the period from 1982 to 1990, when the title of World Player of the Year was an unofficial award, Zico was elected in 1983.
Relatively few Brazilian players have been named South America's Footballer of the Year since 1971 , as only footballers playing at South American clubs are eligible. This trophy went to Tostão (1971), Pelé (1973), Zico (1977, 1981, 1982), Sócrates (1983), Bebeto (1989), Raí (1992), Cafu (1994), Romário (2000), Neymar (2011) and 2012), Ronaldinho (2013), Luan Vieira (2017) and Gabriel Barbosa (2019).
The Bola de Ouro (Golden Ball) does not honor the best of all Brazilian footballers, but that of the Campeonato Brasileiro . The award is determined on the basis of the ratings by Placar magazine , which are given after each game of the season. Since many of the award-winning players then accept high-value contracts in Europe, no footballer has been voted Player of the Year twice since the early 1980s.
Professionals in Brazil
As in Brazilian society, the pay gap is very high in professional football. The earnings of a professional player are usually less than 5,000 euros a month, often largely on a premium basis. The total number of Brazilian professional footballers is estimated at 23,000 in around 500 clubs, but the income of many should not exceed the national minimum income of around R $ 600 per month. Many clubs regularly lose a large proportion of their players: the better ones join better clubs, while others look for a better-paid livelihood. Stable teams are therefore rather the exception, especially in the lower professional area. The result is that many teams have to build a whole new team after a successful season. The Brazilian league is not particularly poor in terms of payments - transfer fees of 8 or 10 million US dollars are quite normal - but when it comes to top stars, the Brazilian clubs cannot keep up with the big European clubs. There were only three players from the Brazilian league in the national team for the 2018 World Cup.
Occasionally, foreign professional footballers also play in Brazil, such as the Argentine national players Carlos Tévez and Javier Mascherano (both 2005-2006 with Corinthians) or the Paraguayans Carlos Gamarra (2005-2007 with Palmeiras) and Julio Manzur (2006 with FC Santos). Tévez moved to Brazil for a fee of US $ 20 million, which was the most expensive transfer within South American football. The native Brazilian and former German national player Paulo Rink played again for his hometown club Athletico Paranaense from Curitiba from 2006-2007 . At the same time he was assistant to Lothar Matthäus , who briefly coached the club between January and March 2006. For a long time, apart from German-Brazilian Rink and goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel, no German football professionals played in Brazil before the former Bundesliga player Alexander Baumjohann joined Coritiba FC in July 2017 and EC Vitória later until August 2018 .
Professionals abroad
Over 5000 Brazilians also play as professionals abroad, and the number is rising. According to CIES surveys in 2019, more than 1,300 athletes were employed abroad in May of that year. Players who hope to assert themselves better in a technically less demanding environment than in Brazilian football also move to Europe, Arabia or Asia. Numerous Brazilians play in the German regional league , in Eastern European leagues, in the Japanese J. League , China , Qatar and Saudi Arabia . Brazilian footballers are looking for engagements even in financially weak leagues like the Faroe Islands , Armenia , Haiti , Lebanon , Vietnam , Senegal and Jamaica . A particularly large number of Brazilians play in the former mother country Portugal , where there is no language barrier that often inhibits the athletic development of players in other countries. In the 2006/07 season, 130 Brazilian and other naturalized players played in the SuperLiga alone .
The first Brazilian players in the German Bundesliga were not very successful and did not stay long: Zezé at 1. FC Köln (1964), Raoul Tagliari at MSV Duisburg (1964–1966) and Buca at HSV (1979/80). The first player to prevail in Germany was Tita , who was signed by Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 1987 . Above all, Leverkusen made many and particularly successful transfers of Brazilian players, u. a. Jorginho , Paulo Sérgio , Paulo Rink, Emerson , Zé Roberto and Lúcio . In total, more than 70 Brazilians played in the Bundesliga. In the 2008/09 season, 38 players played in the first division, seven in the second division and three in the third division .
Bundesliga players Dunga , Júlio César , Zé Roberto and Lúcio have had very successful careers in the national team . Other players who have become stars in Europe can sometimes remain relatively unknown in their own country, such as Giovane Élber , Aílton , Marcelinho or Mário Jardel . The Bundesliga players Lúcio, Zé Roberto, Juan (Bayer Leverkusen) and Gilberto ( Hertha BSC ) were appointed to the national team for the 2006 World Cup .
Some Brazilian footballers become national players in other countries after naturalization. At the 2006 World Cup, several native Brazilians played in various national teams: Deco ( Portugal ), Francileudo Silva dos Santos ( Tunisia ), Marcos Senna ( Spain ), Zinha ( Mexico ) and Alex ( Japan ). Brazilian-born Diego Costa played for Spain at the 2014 World Cup . The naturalized German-Brazilian Paulo Rink played in the German national team between 1998 and 2000, the also naturalized Cacau made his debut in 2009 , and Kevin Kurányi was born in Brazil.
Most of the Brazilian soccer players moved temporarily to Germany to join the Prignitzer Kuckuck Kickers , a sixth-class Brandenburg club from Pritzwalk .
Social connection and sociological theses
Because of the low educational and advancement opportunities of many lower and lower middle class Brazilians, football remains one of the few ways to escape poverty and possibly even to become a celebrated and rich superstar. Most of the players who break through to a professional team come from the impoverished lower class. Regular players of the Brazilian national team who come from the middle class are rare: Sócrates was one of them in the 1980s , his brother Raí in the 1990s and in the 2000s Kaká and Lúcio . As a result of the social gradient in Brazilian society, an increasing number of soccer players and their family members have been kidnapped in recent years. Famous examples are Robinho's mother Marina de Souza and father Romários .
The particular creativity that was and is attributed to Afro-Brazilian footballers led to sociological considerations early on. The famous sociologist and cultural anthropologist Gilberto Freyre , in particular , has coined the thesis of a national style in football, which is a reflection of Brazilian society, since the 1930s. Freyre's main work Herrenhaus und Sklavenhütte appeared in 1933, an essay with the title O negro no Futebol Brasileiro (The Black in Brazilian Football) 1947. With football, Freyre also propagated a positive assessment of the culture of blacks and mulattos and racial mixing as an alternative to racism.
Numerous Brazilian social researchers have since endeavored to explain Brazilian football in terms of black culture, something with the body control that the combat dance Capoeira requires or with the survival strategies in the favelas , such as the so-called jeitinho , the art of getting your head out of the noose to pull and smoothly bypass resistance.
Today in Brazil it is taken for granted that the success and the peculiarities of Brazilian football are the expression of an ethnic melting pot. Roberto DaMatta even declares football to be the civilizing force that forged a nation out of Brazil and transported it into modern times. Until the 1920s, Afro-Brazilian players had great problems playing in clubs and in the national team. With Arthur Friedenreich and Leônidas da Silva , Brazil’s first two superstars were mulattos .
Use of nicknames and nicknames
In contrast to footballers from other countries, Brazilian players are usually called by their first or nickname. Most fans do not even know the birth names of great players like Pelé , who is actually called Edson Arantes do Nascimento . It is not uncommon for their names to be changed by the registry office. The Brazilian preference for using nicknames is not only widespread among footballers, but also in other sports as well as among pop singers, actors and politicians - for example with former President Lula . There are various theories about the origins of this Brazilian tradition. It is assumed that the use of first names and nicknames is a relic from the slave era , which was only abolished in 1888 , when the short name was used to identify the slave as such. Other theories suggest that the habit stems from Jews and Moors who were forcibly converted to Christianity and who emigrated from Portugal and arrived in Brazil in the 16th century. In order not to be recognized as converted Christians, which would have been the case with the mention of their surname, they only used their first name. The use of nicknames is also common in other Portuguese-speaking countries such as Portugal (e.g. Petit ) and Angola (e.g. Akwá ).
Youth football
A myth nurtured by clichés is that the great Brazilian footballers made their breakthrough into paid football directly from beach and street football. For a long time, young talents have been specifically promoted by the clubs and the numerous football schools that are often affiliated with the clubs. Such football schools are also run by former football professionals, such as those of Zico or Jorginho in Rio . In addition to the training that is professionally structured in the big clubs for the youth sector, soccer on the beach is still excellent technical training and, for soccer schools, young soccer players are actually seen playing beach soccer. The best-known example of this is Ronaldo, who was discovered at Copacabana . In the youth teams of the professional clubs, the young players are screened out in so-called peneiras .
Since Pelé was able to enforce a law against so-called slavery in professional football (Lei Pelé) as sports minister in the 1990s, footballers up to the age of 16 have been free to change clubs. After that, the professional clubs have to give the players, who now train as often as the professionals, contracts, pay a salary and take care of social security and health insurance.
At the Junior Football World Cup for U-20s, Brazil was five times world champion ( 1983 , 1985 , 1993 , 2003 , 2011 ) and four times vice world champion ( 1991 , 1995 , 2009 ) and 2015 . The U-17 juniors are the second most successful country in the world with four world championships and two second and third places.
At the Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 , the South American competition for U-20 teams, Brazil is the most successful country with eleven titles and seven second places. The Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-17 has been won twelve times by Brazilian youth teams, the Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-15 , which has only been held since 2004, has been victoriously finished four times.
Women's soccer
After Brazilian women's football initially lagged behind international developments, it has developed very quickly since the late 1990s and made it to the top of the world. The women's national team has now become an international player. The successes of the national team are slowly reflected in the public interest, so that in 2003 the games of the World Cup were televised for the first time. Nevertheless, women's football in Brazil is overshadowed by men's football even more than in other countries.
The greatest successes so far have been winning the silver medal twice at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games , the runner-up in 2007 and a third place at the 1999 World Cup . In June 2009, the FIFA World Rankings took second place for the first time. It is currently in ninth place (as of December 2019) .
In South America, Brazil is by far the most successful team, winning six of the seven South American championships held so far , only in 2006 it was defeated by Argentina in the decisive game of the finals . In the youth field, the Brazilian selection was fourth at the U-19 World Cup in 2002 and 2004 . In 2006 , the Brazilians took third place.
As with men, Brazilian women's football is also characterized by attacking football at a very high technical level. The biggest problem of the national team is the relatively little competition experience, as there is no professional league or even a national championship in Brazil, but only regional championships, and the international opponents in South America are hardly any competition.
The best Brazilians played in the American WUSA league until it stopped playing in 2003. As a result, many players moved to Europe, including six-time world footballer Marta to Sweden, and Cristiane , who had been under contract with 1. FFC Turbine Potsdam since 2005 and moved to VfL Wolfsburg for the 2006/2007 season. With the introduction of the US professional game class Women's Professional Soccer in 2009, numerous Brazilian players again moved to the USA.
| Attendance records | ||||||||
| date | competition | place | host | guest | Result | spectator | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 11/16/2019 | State Championship of São Paulo 2019 | Sao Paulo , Arena Corinthians | SC Corinthians | São Paulo FC | 3-0 | 28,862 | |
| 2. | 06/29/2017 | Brazilian Championship 2017 - Série A1 | Manaus , Arena da Amazônia | EC Iranduba | Santos FC | 1: 2 | 25,371 | |
Beach soccer, street soccer, futsal, E-Brasileirão
Brazil's wealth of creative, tech-savvy footballers is often attributed to street football, which is ubiquitous. Particularly in the favelas , where the purchase of football boots or even a ball often fails due to financial means and is often kicked barefoot with tied rags or drinks cans, good technology is essential.
Where possible, games are played on the beach instead of on the hard ground of the streets. Brazil became the home of beach soccer and footvolley long before these terms were established. Many of today's stars such as B. Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Robinho or Neymar played futsal (Futebol de Salão) , a football variant with smaller playing fields (mostly basketball courts) and heavier and smaller balls , in their youth . The higher speed in futsal and the narrow spaces promote the technical development of the players.
Brazil won the first three Futsal World Cups in 1989 , 1992 and 1996 , but was then temporarily replaced by Spain as the dominant team. In 2008 he won the fourth title at the home World Cup, and in 2012 in Thailand the fifth.
Since 2016, the CBF has also hosted the E-Brasileirão . The competition is held using the football simulation Pro Evolution Soccer .
Stages
In Brazil alone there are five football stadiums that can hold over 100,000 spectators or have taken them earlier. The most famous is the Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro , where over 200,000 spectators are said to have attended the games of the 1950 World Cup . Other big stadiums are the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo , the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte , Fonte Nova in Salvador , Castelão in São Luís , Castelao in Fortaleza , Arruda in Recife and the two equal stages Estádio Olímpico Monumental and Estádio Beira-Rio in Porto Alegre .
Environment of football
Fans: Samba and violence
A poll in October 2004 showed that 18.1% of 7,207 Brazilians questioned sympathize with Flamengo from Rio. This was followed by the most popular clubs Corinthians São Paulo , FC São Paulo and Palmeiras (all from São Paulo). Extrapolated across Brazil, Flamengo has 9 million more fans than Corinthians and is the only club that is popular across the country.
The national team was named first by only 0.7% of those surveyed, but close to a world championship it surpasses all clubs in popularity. Winning a world championship or a victory against arch rivals Argentina triggers waves of euphoria across the country. If unsuccessful, on the other hand, fans across the country can fall into depression, as was the case after the 1950 World Cup, when at least four people died during the last game - three of heart failure, one of whom fell from the stands Death.
The Brazilian soccer fans are considered to be particularly temperamental and atmospheric. The background music to the game is characteristic with samba music in the stands. While the fans of the national team are very popular everywhere and welcome to set the mood at every tournament, the fan scene of the Brazilian clubs is not free from violence. Even if a violent hooligan scene is smaller than in Europe, the rivalry between competing clubs in a city in particular can escalate and claim deaths. In a single month, October 2005, a supporter of the then first division club Ponte Preta from Campinas was beaten to death by around 15 fans of rival São Paulo FC . Two fans were killed in brawls between fans of two clubs from São Paulo, at the classic against Corinthians São Paulo , a Palmeiras São Paulo supporter was struck down with a shot in the stomach and a Corinthians fan was fatally injured with a shot in the head following street fighting. A fatal incident also occurred on February 24, 2014 in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup in their own country. A Santos supporter was slain by a group of São Paulo FC fans following a game between the two teams.
Corruption and scandals
The involvement in corruption is evident among the Brazilian officials; Ricardo Teixeira in particular has made himself suspicious.
In September 2005, a betting scandal rocked Brazilian football. The prestigious Veja magazine had exposed the involvement of Fifa referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho and entrepreneur Nagib Fayad, who were later arrested by federal police. In addition, other referees were also suspected of manipulation, such as Paulo José Danelon.
Edilson initially assured TV Globo that he had never postponed games despite the pressure he and his family had put on, but shortly afterwards he admitted that he had influenced the results of seven games, including a Copa Libertadores game between Banfield (Argentina) and Alianza (Peru). As tapped phone calls showed, he had received 10,000 reals per game, while the backers made profits between 200,000 and 400,000 real. Eleven games then had to be repeated.
In 1997 a corruption affair had become known through the television channel TV Globo , in which the chairman of the referee committee, Ivens Mendes, was convicted of corruption and manipulation of games and was banned for life.
Football and politics
In line with its social significance, football in Brazil is often the subject of heated debates that can even reach parliament. In addition, it is institutionally more closely integrated into the political system than in Germany, for example. In 1995, Pelé was appointed special minister for sport in the cabinet of the new President Cardoso . There were even rumors that Pele was going to run for the highest office in the state in the 2001 elections. The close links between politics and sport are often held responsible for the extent of corruption in Brazilian football.
literature
- Alois Gstöttner : Gooool do Brasil - cartography of a national passion. , Club Bellevue, Vienna 2014. ISBN 978-3-200-03492-1
- Samba Goal. Eleven stories from Brazil . With a foreword by Juca Kfouri. Munich 2013. ISBN 3-423-14258-8
- Martin Curi: Brazil - land of football. , Verlag Die Werkstatt , Göttingen 2013. ISBN 978-3-7307-0003-7
- Flávio Moreira da Costa (Ed.): Kick-off from Brazil. Eleven in the square . TFM Verlag , Frankfurt 2006. ISBN 3-925203-99-0
- Alexandre Fernandez Vaz: Sport and sports criticism in the culture and civilization process. Analyzes according to Adorno, Horkheimer, Elias and Da Matta . Butzbach-Griedel 2004. ISBN 3-932079-90-6
- Alex Bellos: Futebol. Soccer. The Brazilian art of living. Berlin 2004. ISBN 3-89320-077-0
- Karin Sturm: Between the beach and the stadium. The football miracle Brazil. Berlin 1998. ISBN 3-328-00785-7
- Chris Taylor: Samba, Coca and the round leather. Forays into the Latin America of football. Stuttgart 1998. ISBN 3-89657-601-1
Web links
- ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: World Cup talks ) (Der Standard)
- Official homepage of the CBF
- Carl Goerdeler: “Futebol! Futebol! " (Die Zeit April 20, 2006)
- "A perverse model". taz interview with Juca Kfouri
Individual evidence
- ^ Brasileirão , Bola n @ Area
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Boletim Financeiro , Football Association of Rio de Janeiro (FERJ), September 19, 2010 (via Confederação Brasileira de Futebol ).
- ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Boletim Financeiro , Football Association of Rio de Janeiro (FERJ), December 6, 2010 (via Confederação Brasileira de Futebol ).
- ^ Lei nº 5,627, de 28 de December 2009, do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
- ↑ História das Rodovias ( Memento of November 19, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) , estradas.com.br
- ↑ De 1959 a 1970, os campeões brasileiros ( Memento of December 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) , Confederação Brasileira de Futebol , December 21, 2010
- ↑ Brazil: The longing for "Jogo Bonito" - Dunga is no longer a coach. kicker.de, July 4, 2010, accessed on January 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Who will win the 2018 World Cup? The favorites and secret favorites for the world title in Russia. goal.com, June 12, 2018, accessed January 5, 2020 .
- ↑ Medida Provisória Nº 474, de 23 dezembro de 2009 (National Law on Minimum Income)
- ↑ Rock Band Music export world champion , report on chefutbol.com of 15 May 2019 called on May 17, 2019
- ↑ Prignitzer Cuckoo Kickers. (No longer available online.) Www.rodgaufussball.de, February 19, 2010, archived from the original on October 12, 2013 ; Retrieved October 11, 2013 .
- ↑ Brazilian nicknames The one with the protruding ears
- ↑ dw-world.de: The Brazilians and their belittling
- ^ Marcus Pawelczyk: Team portrait Brazil . In the bpb dossier “Women's Soccer World Cup 2007” from September 10, 2007. Accessed on January 24, 2011.
- ^ Corinthians faz 3 a 0 no São Paulo e confirma título paulista feminino com campanha impecável. In: globoesporte.globo.com. O Globo , November 16, 2019, accessed November 18, 2019 .
- ↑ Com público histórico, Santos bate Iranduba nas semis do Brasileiro feminino . In: globoesporte.globo.com. O Globo, June 29, 2017, accessed July 12, 2017 .
- ↑ Time feminino vira Fenômeno de público e "desbanca" a Series A; entenda . In: globoesporte.globo.com. O Globo, July 1, 2017, accessed July 12, 2017 .
- ↑ UOL Esporte: Flamengo e Corinthians lideram levantamento de torcidas no país . (Portuguese) Article of October 4, 2004. Retrieved January 24, 2011.
- ↑ That there is such a thing cf. Page no longer available , search in web archives: Fan beaten to death , 11Freunde 11/2007 .
- ↑ Cf. Maik Großmann, Brazil: Two dead in a league game , in: 11Freunde 12/2005 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. and riots in Brazilian football: three dead (Sports Law Working Group of the German Bar Association)
- ↑ Followers slain by fans . Tagesspiegel.de website accessed on February 24, 2014.
- ↑ http://www.taz.de/!136174/
- ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : I strike on the lawn. Article dated September 24, 2005, accessed January 24, 2011.
- ↑ Jens Glüsing: In the hands of the mafia . In Der Spiegel No. 42/1997. Online version October 13, 1997, accessed January 24, 2011.
CONMEBOL members: Argentina | Bolivia | Brazil | Chile | Ecuador | Colombia | Paraguay | Peru | Uruguay | Venezuela
CONCACAF members: Aruba | Bonaire | Curacao | French Guiana | Guyana | Suriname | Trinidad and Tobago
Other: Falkland Islands
Football in other continental associations:
Africa ( CAF ) |
Asia ( AFC ) |
Europe ( UEFA ) |
North America ( CONCACAF ) |
Oceania ( OFC )
