Humbling prompts calls for reform of domestic game

Amidst the post-game criticism of Brazil’s players and coaches, some pundits said the hosts must use the devastating loss to overhaul the national game, much like Germany did when they lost the World Cup final to Brazil 12 years ago.

“This defeat is the biggest chance we’ve ever had to modernise and professionalise the running of Brazilian football,” Fernando Ferreira, owner of Pluri, a sports consultancy, tweeted after the game.

“We can’t look for explanations on the field. They began years ago and it is the result of shocking management and administration.”

The Brazilian league is the seventh-highest earning in the world and the biggest outside Europe, said Amir Somoggi, an independent analyst who has worked with several of Brazil’s top clubs.

Yet top sides like Corinthians and Flamengo, each of whom boast they have more than 30 million ‘fans’, are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt. Brazil’s top 20 clubs have collective debts of 5.1 billion reais ($2.31 billion), Somoggi said.

This year alone, first division clubs Atletico Paranaense, Botafogo, Flamengo, Portuguesa and last year’s Libertadores Cup winners Atletico Mineiro were among those who did not pay their players’ wages on time. “You can say to me we need to live within our means but if we don’t spend then we’ll get relegated and the fans will lynch me,” Manuel da Lupa, who was president of Portuguesa for nine years until January, told Reuters.

“You don’t want to do it but you have to. And that obviously has an impact on the club’s financial health. It’s not that we don’t plan. Passion is involved. Brazilian football is not sustainable.”

The lack of financial management is all the more astonishing given that clubs are making more money than ever before thanks to a growing economy and a new TV deal. The revenue of Brazil’s top 100 clubs jumped from one billion reals in 2004 to 3.5 billion in 2012, according to Somiggi.

However, only a small portion of that money comes from active supporters. The average attendance is higher at first division games in Japan, China and the United States than in the country where Pele, Zico and Ronaldo first kicked a ball.

Crowds stay away because ticket prices are high and violence in and around grounds is a constant threat.

Evening matches kick off late to fit into schedules around the nightly soap operas on television and public transportation has often stopped by the time the final whistle is blown.

Many games are shown on terrestrial TV and all matches are available on cable. Even then, they compete with scores of more glamorous games shown from England, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Germany, Greece, Mexico and Argentina.

One group of players have tried to force the Brazilian Football Confederation and TV companies into talks aimed at changing the structure but they have had little success so far.

The group, called Common Sense FC, represents more than 1,000 players, including many internationals, and wants fewer games for the over-extended big clubs and more for the minnows.

It proposes a regional fifth tier that would allow 432 of the country’s smaller teams to compete all year round, not just from January to May as now.

They also want clubs to be fined or docked points if they fail to pay their players on time. But neither the CBF nor the people who run the clubs take the group seriously and dialogue has been stop-start at best. The players last year staged unprecedented sit down strikes during games as a protest. Maybe now they will be heard.