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On this week’s podcast Damon looks at Brazilian football and we focus on the European Championship qualifiers in the prediction section of the show. And the small matter of voting for the world’s best footballer. Ever!
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Transcript: Brazilian Football by Damon Brewster
Yes, it might seem strange that we havena€™t talked about football in Brazil until now. After all when you say sport and football, everyone would automatically think – football. And football is of course as much a part of Brazilian culture and life as the rhythm of samba. Indeed this street music often incorporates lyrics about football as well as love and politics. Brazil and football, football and Brazil: the two are inseparable, and the passion with which Brazilians play the game is admired around the world. Every football fan knows of Pele, Zico, Ronaldo, and Ronaldino and streets around the world are full of children trying to copy the ball skills, and free flowing style that characterizes Brazilian football.
But most of what the world knows about Brazilian football is down to their national team in their famous yellow shirts, or their superstars playing in Europe. What is football like in Brazil? Well, ita€™s complicated. And it was in a state of continual change up until a few years ago. Basically teams play in a national league and state leagues. Brazil of course is a huge country, so it makes sense to put teams into regional groupings, but it also makes it difficult to decide which is the most important, the powerful State leagues, like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo or the Brazilian Championship, the Campeonato de Brasileiro.
The National League, held from April to December, is divided into three, A, B and C. Leagues A and B have 20 teams in each and the bottom four are relegated from both, while the top four from Leagues B and C are promoted. League C has a huge 64 teams. The many state leagues on the other hand have different numbers of divisions and different numbers of teams in each. The number of teams relegated and promoted also differs from state to state. Confused? Well, add to this a lot of rule changes, often to stop big clubs being relegated, legal arguments, and a match-fixing scandal in 2005 and it can look even more baffling. The state competitions run from January to April, and two of the most important are the Paulista in Sao Paulo, the most successful state in terms of national championships, and Carioca in Rio de Janeiro.
What of the clubs? Well most fans will be familiar with Corinthians, Sao Paulo, Flamengo, Palmeiras, Vasco de Gama, Santos and Gremio, but there are up to 2000 more teams registered with the Brazilian football federation. Last year, the Brazilian Championship was won by Sao Paulo for the fourth time in their history, with Internacional being runners up for the second year in a row. And so far this year in the Paulista competition, Santos, the former team of arguably the most famous footballer in history, Pele, are leading Sao Paulo by one point in the race to be crowned champions, while in the Carioca Copa Guanabara tournament, Madureira are the early leaders over Flamengo and Botafogo. Of course, Brazil is represented in the Copa Libertadores as well where Santos will hope to maintain their 100% record when they meet Gimnasia de Plata on the 21st of March, while Sao Paulo in second place in their group will hope they can overcome leaders Necaxca of Mexico away. Flamengo have a good chance of progressing to the last 16 as they lead group five, while Gremio are still in with a chance, lying in second place in group 3, while last years winners Internacional have it all to do with one win and two losses so far.
Ia€™m sure the Brazilian fans will bring their distinctive samba beat with them as they watch their clubs fight it out with the best in Los Americas.
