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"Can you send me jerseys, pennants, banners, photos, autographs, and
other memorabilia from Brazilian Soccer? I'm a true fan..."
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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"I'm looking for videos of old matches - I'm actually willing to pay
for them! Do you have any available?"
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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What do the letters CBF, which appear in the Brazilian emblem, mean?
Confederação Brasileira de Futebol, meaning, obviously,
Brazilian Confederation of Football.
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What is CBF's email address? Do they have an official Web site?
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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What is Brazil's record in the World Cup tournaments?
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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Why do most Brazilian players have only one name?
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
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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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Is it true that the world's largest stadium is located in Brazil? Which
club does it belong to?
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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Are there other spectator sports in Brazil against which soccer has to compete for public?
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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When was soccer introduced in Brazil? Is it fully professionalized?
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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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?
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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Most countries play national championships. Why is Brazil's system set
up at both state and national level? Which is more important?
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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Who are the leading scorers of all time in Brazil?
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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Brazilian Soccer FAQ