Brazilian Soccer FAQ

  1. "Can you send me jerseys, pennants, banners, photos, autographs, and other memorabilia from Brazilian Soccer? I'm a true fan..."

  2. "I'm looking for videos of old matches - I'm actually willing to pay for them! Do you have any available?"

  3. What do the letters CBF, which appear in the Brazilian emblem, mean?

  4. What is CBF's e-mail address? Do they have an official Web site?

  5. What is Brazil's record in the World Cup tournaments?

  6. Why do most Brazilian players have only one name?

  7. Is it true that the world's largest stadium is located in Brazil? Which club does it belong to?

  8. Are there other spectator sports in Brazil that soccer has to compete with for public?

  9. When was soccer introduced in Brazil? Is it fully professionalized?

  10. How many games does a club side have to play during the season? Are there several divisions, with a League and a Cup competition, like in most of Europe?

  11. Most countries play national championships. Why is Brazil's system set up at both state and national level? Which is more important?

  12. Who are the leading scorers of all time in Brazil?


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Brazilian Soccer FAQ Answers

  1. "Can you send me jerseys, pennants, banners, photos, autographs, and other memorabilia from Brazilian Soccer? I'm a true fan..."
  2. The Brazilian soccer home page, Brazil, the Land of Football, is not a commercial site. It was created and is maintained by Brazilian soccer fans, in their spare time. Sorry, we don't give or sell any material.

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  3. "I'm looking for videos of old matches - I'm actually willing to pay for them! Do you have any available?"
  4. Again, we don't give or sell anything, and that includes videos. There are many sites on the Web dedicated to this kind of enterprise - use a search engine like Yahoo or Google! And, although we don't like to provide free ads, maybe some of you in the USA would like a referral: Soccer Learning Systems- call 1-800-762-2376 or fax 1-510-820-4497 and order a catalog. I've acquired some videos from them myself a few years back.

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  5. What do the letters CBF, which appear in the Brazilian emblem, mean?
  6. Confederação Brasileira de Futebol, meaning, obviously, Brazilian Confederation of Football.

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  7. What is CBF's email address? Do they have an official Web site?
  8. CBF's official Web site is at http://www.cbf.com.br. Unfortunately, for non-Portuguese speakers, there is no English version. At the main page's top right-hand side there is a link to the contact email.

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  9. What is Brazil's record in the World Cup tournaments?
  10. Brazil won the World Cup five times: Sweden 1958, Chile 1962, Mexico 1970, USA 1994 and Japan/South Korea 2002. That's the reason for the five stars above the CBF emblem, by the way. Brazil is the country with the best World Cup record and the only country who never missed the World Cup finals. More details about Brazil in the World Cups are available.

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  11. Why do most Brazilian players have only one name?
  12. Most Brazilian players are known professionally by either a nickname, or one or more names extracted from their full names. Often the nickname is a diminutive (ending in "inho" or "zinho") or an augmentative (ending in "ão" or "zão") of the first name. Here are a few examples:
             Real name                         Known as
    ----------------------------  -----------------------------------
    Eduardo Gonçalves de Andrade  Tostão (not an augmentative!)
    Romário de Souza Faria        Romário
    Paulo Roberto Falcão          Falcão (not an augmentative either!)
    Mauro da Silva                Mauro Silva
    Jair Ventura Filho            Jairzinho
    
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  13. Is it true that the world's largest stadium is located in Brazil? Which club does it belong to?
  14. The Maracanã Stadium, located in Rio de Janeiro, detains several records of attendance in all time. Around 200,000 watched the 1950 World Cup final match. Recently, the official capacity was reduced to 125,000, for safety reasons, and then again to about 90,000, due to extensive remodeling.

    Maracanã was built by, and originally belonged to, the Rio de Janeiro municipality. Currently, it is managed by SUDERJ, a RJ State government organization. It does not belong to any club, but it is the regular venue of matches involving the most popular clubs in town, namely, Flamengo, Vasco, Fluminense and Botafogo.

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  15. Are there other spectator sports in Brazil against which soccer has to compete for public?
  16. Soccer (Futebol, in Portuguese) is absolute in terms of popularity in Brazil. Soccer spin-offs, like Futsal and beach soccer have been practiced at large for a long time, and their exploitation as spectator sports has started in the 90's. Women's soccer unfortunately has failed to capture a significant public: The Women's soccer national league was extinct, in a great part due to a lack of economic viability.

    But there are other popular sports as well. Formula 1 is widely followed and watched on TV. Basketball attracts some attention, which tends to increase a lot when the National Team is doing well. Volleyball has increased its popularity a lot since the 80's, thanks to Brazil Men's and Women's team achievements. Tennis also does well whenever a Brazilian player wins international tournaments, as it has been the case of Guga (Gustavo Kuerten).

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  17. When was soccer introduced in Brazil? Is it fully professionalized?
  18. Yes, Brazilian soccer is entirely professionalized, although sometimes the men who run it are not, or do not act with professional competence, or both. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of professional soccer clubs throughout all of Brazil today.

    Soccer was introduced in Brazil in 1894 by Charles Miller, a Brazilian with English parents. At 20, he returned from England, where he had been going to school, bringing with him a couple of footballs.

    At the turn of the century, soccer was entirely amateur and practiced mostly by upper-class young men. During the 20's, the game was already quite popular and more open to the working classes, and the practice of paying players under the table became widespread. Professionalism started to be openly adopted by many clubs in 1933, when the clubs split into two leagues, one professional, and the other, amateur. This happened almost simultaneously in Rio and Sao Paulo. The Brazilian Confederation did not endorse the professional leagues until 1937, when it finally recognized professionalism and the rival leagues were then consolidated.

    For a serious yet very entertaining reading about the subject, we recommend the book Passion of the People? Football in South America by Tony Mason (1995, Verso; UK: 6 Meard Street, London, W1V3HR; USA: 180 Varick Street, New York, NY, 10014). This fine book is not free of errors, but they are few and circumstantial (most are bad spelling of Brazilian names), and do not invalidate the author's analysis.

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  19. How many games do clubs have to play during the season? Are there several divisions, with a League and a Cup competition, like in most of Europe?
  20. Until recently, the Brazilian soccer calendar was disorganized and poorly designed, suffering changes from season to season, and even on the fly during the season. In 2003, however, it has been reformed and the same organization has been maintained since then.

    The number of games played by a club may vary but is guaranteed to be very high, especially if the club is competing in other South American tournaments. It used to be worse in the recent past, though. During 1993, Sao Paulo FC had to play more than a hundred matches. In 1994, Gremio set a record when they had to play three times on the same day for different tournaments.

    Currently, this is how the Brazilian season is organized: From January to April, the clubs play in their respective state leagues. In addition, one or more clubs from each state (usually the top from the previous season's state leagues) participate in the Cup of Brazil. From April to December the Brazilian Championship takes place. Additionally, some clubs have to play also in the South American tournaments, namely the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sul-Americana. Vacation time goes from mid-December to mid-January.

    The Brazilian Championship has three divisions. The first division has 20 clubs, and it is now played under the same format traditionally used by the European Leagues. The second and third division fixture tables are not as clear cut. The number of clubs in each division varies and the format features many groups and phases, and somehow two clubs reach the home-and-away final. Four teams are relegated/promoted.

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  21. Most countries play national championships. Why is Brazil's system set up at both state and national level? Which is more important?
  22. Brazil is a country of continental dimensions. In the beginning of the century, traveling across such large distances was extremely difficult. For this reason, there was no national league, just state leagues. Sporadically, cross-state friendly games or tournaments would take place, as was the case of the first Rio-Sao Paulo tournament back in 1933. In the 20's, a championship between state all-star teams was implemented. This competition was abandoned in 1963. In 1959, the Taca Brasil, a tournament in the Cup format, was created, with the participation of the champions of each state. In 1967, the Rio-Sao Paulo tournament was expanded with the inclusion of teams from Minas Gerais and Rio Grande do Sul states. It was only in 1971 that a competition officially called "National Championship" was created. The participants of the Brazilian Championship still participate in their respective state leagues as well. For these historical reasons, the state leagues are very traditional and still deemed to be very important. The rivalries within cities and states are much older and deeper than the inter-state ones. Nevertheless, the Brazilian Championship has already become more prestigious than its state counterparts.

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  23. Who are the leading scorers of all time in Brazil?
  24. As expected, the leading scorer of all time in Brazil is Pelé who scored 1284 goals during his career. Pelé is also the leading scorer for the national team, with 95 goals in 114 games.

    Many sources list Friedenreich as the unofficial leading scorer of all time, with 1329 goals. However, there is evidence that the original source of this information had a typo in it, which was then disseminated to various places, including the Guinness Book of Records. The arguably correct figure would be 1239 goals, which puts him in the second place after Pelé. However even this number is disputed. Recent thorough research could only find between 500 and 600 of Friedenreich's goals.

    Next in the list would allegedly come Flávio (1025), Romário (1002), Dario (926), Zico (800) and Roberto Dinamite (744). These number are controversial because they may include goals scored in youth leagues or just be plain wrong. Researchers have failed to find in the records many of Friedenreich's, Flávio's and Dario's alleged goals. According to recent statistics, Túlio has surpassed Zico and is now the third all-time Brazilian scorer, only behind Pelé and Romário.

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Last modified: June 12, 2008.
Document in development. Comments, suggestions and corrections are appreciated.

Mauro Prais
Email: mauro.prais@ieee.org