The Brazilian Ministry of Sports plan to change the Brazilian football calendar so that it follows the European season.
The football season is played in Brazil from January to December, but leaves little room for the clubs to play friendly games abroad as the pre-season in most countries coincide with the middle of the season in Brazil.
The idea is to take advantage of the 2014 World Cup to implement the change, as Brazil’s season will have to stop anyway during the tournament.
If their plan is implemented, Brazilian football season will start in August and end in May, allowing the clubs to have a longer pre-season period, and also allowing them to play friendlies in Europe before the season starts.
It would also solve the problem of players leaving the clubs during the middle of the season, as players would instead leave mainly before the start of the season.
The idea has its own issues though, as Brazil is located in the Southern Hemisphere, the European calendar would increase the amount of games played during the Summer.
Brazilian FA president José Maria Marin also opposes to this idea, he said in January: We have to accept our reality, as it’s what we have, we can’t follow other countries’ calendars, like that of Europe.”
“I won’t create false expectations that we will change the calendar. Brazil is a huge country, a continent and that has to be taken into account, 83% of European countries would fit in our country.”
Source: Lancenet
