Brazilian State Championships in need of reform?
Yesterday, Tim Vickery claimed on his blog that the early-season regional leagues in Brazil — the 27 State Championships — are “past their sell-by date”. (Basically, these Championships occur right at the start of the Brazilian football season and see teams from the same States competing against each other in a mini league. Imagine if — before the Premiership kicked off — Arsenal, Chelsea, and other top London teams, played in a local league with the Charltons, Millwalls, and Lutons of the English leagues.)
To a degree, I think Vickery is right. The disparity between the Campeonato Paulista and, say, the Campeonato Carioca, is a large one. On the one hand there’s some pretty serious teams from São Paulo (Corinthians, Santos, Palmeiras, and São Paulo themselves), whereas Rio’s top teams face comparatively weaker opposition. Vickery’s theory is that the São Paulo teams are going to be closer to their “fighting weight” by the time the Brasileirão rolls around.
This may be so, but I wonder if he’s missing a very important point here. Brazil is massive country and not a rich one. Traveling across the country to follow your team must surely be seen as the preserve of the well off. Heck, I can’t afford to get up to Coventry very often! I can’t imagine what it would be like for a fan of Recife team Sport having to travel down the coast to Porto Alegre to play Grêmio. That’s a journey of over 2,300; or two solid days driving.
It’s always struck me that the football in Brazil is very much still of and for the proletariat; unlike our Premiership, it’s still more of a working man’s game. Being able to see the top local teams playing in your town just seems like a good thing to me; kind of like the league system of college football in America. Who can afford to travel — week in and week out — across such huge distances for games that are anything less than a final or a semi final? Not people with regular jobs and probably not a lot of regular football fans in Brazil.
Tags: Brazil, Brazilian Football, Football
