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| :: FOOTBALL |
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| Football in Brazil |
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| The Brazilians score a goal in Haiti |
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Football is the most prominent sport in Brazil. The National Team has won the FIFA World Cup tournament a record five times, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 and is the only team to have never missed a World Cup participation, and to be among the favorites to win the trophy every time the competition is scheduled. Pelé, one of the most recognized footballers in history, led Brazil to three of those championships and is the top scorer of all time in the sport. After the third win, Brazil kept the World Cup trophy permanently. Some of the contemporary talents in the national team prominent in the football world include Romário, Rivaldo, Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Some of these players can be considered super-stars, achieving celebrity status internationally and signing sports contracts, as well as advertisement and endorsement contracts, in the value of millions of dollars.
The governing body of football in Brazil is the Brazilian Football Confederation.
In the 1870s an expatriate named John Miller worked on the railway construction project in Sao Paulo together with some 3000 other immigrant families from the British Isles in the last decades of the 19th century. in 1884 Miller sent his ten year old son Charles William Miller to Banisters school in Southampton, England to be educated. Charles was a skilled athlete who quickly picked up the game of football at the time when the Football Association was still being formed, and as an accomplished winger and striker Charles held school honors that gained him entry into the Southampton Club team and later into the County team of Hampshire.
In 1888, the first sports club was founded in the city, São Paulo Athletic Club.
In 1892 while still in England, Charles was invited to play a game for Corinthians, a team formed of players invited from public schools and universities.
On his return to Brazil Charles brought some football equipment and a rules book with him. He then develop the new rules of the game amongst the community in São Paulo. São Paulo Athletic Club won the first three years championships. Miller's skills were far above his colleagues at this stage. He was given the honors of contributing his name to a move involving a deft flick of the ball with the heel "Chaleiro".
Charles Miller kept a strong bond with English football throughout his life. Teams from Southampton and Corinthians Club traveled to Brazil to played against São Paulo Athletic Club and other teams in São Paulo. After a tour of Corinthians to Brazil in 1910 a new team in Brazil took on the name of Corinthians after a suggestion from Charles
The Brazilian Football Confederation was founded in 1914, and the current format for the Campeonato Brasileiro was established in 1971.
In 1988 São Paulo Athletic Club celebrated its centenary playing the English side Corinthians at Morumbi Stadium. English Corinthian finish its tour by going against the local professional Corinthians Paulista team, who counted the likes of Sócrates and Rivelino amongst its roster, at Paecambu Stadium in São Paulo and true to Corinthian principles of good clean football the score was 1 to 0 in favor of the locals when as agreed Socrates changed shirts to play alongside the English amateurs. This did not affect the score unfortunately although a largely packed stadium was cheering on for a drawn result. |
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| Football culture |
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Football quickly became a passion for Brazilians, who often refer to Brazil as "o país do futebol" ("the football country"). Over 10,000 Brazilians play professionally at home and all over the world.
Football has a major effect on Brazilian culture. It is often the favorite pastime of youngsters that can be found playing football on the streets. World Cup tournaments are a social phenomenon and it is not unusual for people to skip work to watch the national team play, and in some cases the very workplace will set up apparatus for its employees to watch the event together. It should be noted that the General Elections are usually held in the same year as the World Cup, and this is often criticized for taking advantage of the nationalistic surge created by football and bringing it into politics. Also, former football players are often elected to legislative positions.
One unique aspect of football in Brazil is the existence and importance of the Brazilian state championships. For much of the early development of the game in Brazil the nation's size and the lack of rapid transport made national competitions infeasible, so the competition centered on state tournaments and such inter-state competitions as the Torneio Rio-São Paulo. Even today, despite the existence of a national tournament, the state tournaments continue to be hotly contested and the intra-state rivalries remain intense.
The development of a single state championship did not have the effect intended: instead of allowing all of the best teams in Brazil to compete with each other, it led to a lot of new clubs forming in order to share some of the success, this increased amount of clubs led to a wider spread of the talent, and an actual fall in the quality of football. Some of the more successful teams did not like the change, including who complained that they were forced to travel across the country to play teams they had not heard of.
Brazil has a reputation for playing particularly beautiful football, yet having particularly terribly organized football, this was reflected on the multiple teething problems of the national league, including several teams claiming to have won it, and another example of it is the military dictatorship disgracing a manager because they disagreed with his squad selection. |
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| Football style |
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Brazilian football is a reflection of the country's multiracial society. Brazil's unique style is characterized by much creativity and swing and is infused with various rhythms and choreographies. It is believed that this unique style was developed in the low income areas largely populated by people of African descent. The great "foot ability" that the players had could be traced to the physical coordination and rhythm associated with the capoeira, Brazilian martial arts, and samba which are characterized by footsteps to dance or to play under the rhythm of African drums. |
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