The Brazilian State Championships are coming to an end for another year. There have been four months or so of Davids playing Goliaths in games which must mean something to some people somewhere, with outcomes seldom biblical.
Ask the football writers and pundits outside of Brazil about these state competitions, and you’ll probably get a groan or a mumble about how they’re inconvenient, laborious, and only serve to halt the progress of Brazilian football as a whole.
Some, even within Brazil, might be fervently against, and others nostalgically in favour, but most will be just fed up with the whole concept of these pre-season obstructions.
But why so? And is this bad press justified?
The State of the States
The State Championships are Brazil’s oldest football league competitions, and have been a mainstay of the Brazilian football calendar ever since the founding father of Brazilian football, Charles Miller, initiated the first organised league competition between five local teams in São Paulo in 1902.
The competitions made perfect sense in those days as the immigrants from Europe wanted something leisurely to remind them of home, and the growing number of labourers and workers embraced a sport which gave them an escape from everyday life, whether this was watching or playing.
There are similar stories around the world, as football accompanied the trade of produce and raw materials across the globe and was dropped off at each stop along the way. As Brazil is such a massive country these localised leagues were the obvious solution, as countrywide travel for such folly was out of the question.
The fact these leagues are so old is part of the reason for their problematic endurance. They’re engrained on the sentimental minds of their few followers and the state organisations which run them, and rather than the game being dictated by the big clubs who bring in the revenue, as it often is in Europe, the set up in Brazil is more democratic, with smaller teams having as much of a say as their more lucrative neighbours.
But why shouldn’t they have a say? These yearly matches against the big clubs can bring in much needed exposure, if not always revenue, and are probably the highlight of the season for some of these teams.
The tournaments also give fringe players at bigger clubs a chance to take part in more competitive matches, helping them push for a permanent place in the side when the national league starts in May. They’re a chance for the next Brazilian wonderkid to etch his name in his club’s folklore, and should a team manage to triumph in their state championship, the fans will definitely care.
Managers can be sacked for poor performance in these leagues, and just as players can make a name for themselves, the opposite is also true – that lumbering misfiring striker could easily find himself transfer listed come May. So the insignificance muted at the beginning of the campaign, can soon turn into an important cup win to shout about, and set the team up for the season ahead.
Long Road to Ruin
One of the main criticisms of these championships, and probably the most justified of them all, is the amount of time they take out of the Brazilian football season. The 2012 season ended on December 2, with many of the state competitions starting up again on January 19 2013, which gives little more than a month’s break for the teams and players if you take into account pre-season training.
The packed fixture list which ensues can mean players turning out for Brazil in international games (even friendlies), while their club side back home has to continue on without them. This may help even out the playing field for those teams who don’t have international stars among their ranks, but it’s far from ideal when the clubs are paying a players wages but can end up without them for key games.
Brazil is catching up to the wealthy football leagues around the world, and it can now afford to lure former star players back from Europe rather than see them disappear again to the Middle East, Asia, or the MLS. There is also evidence that it can keep hold of its own stars in the making – such as Neymar and Dede – for that little bit longer before they go to the mythical promised land of the European Champions League. Having recently been voted the 5th best league in the world, based on a number of factors judged by World Soccer Magazine, it’s surely time for Brazil to catch up in an organisational sense as well as a financial one.
Hope of The States?
There has to be some kind of compromise which retains the heritage of these competitions while at the same time freeing up room in the calendar, but no one seems sure what that is. Many European leagues manage to fit in two domestic cup competitions alongside their league and continental calendar, so maybe something along these lines could be conjured up to fit in with the Brazilian season.
A reserve type league could be another option, but then this takes away much of the magic involved when a team of players from Bangu can find themselves playing against the likes of Clarence Seedorf, or Brazil’s first choice centre forward Fred. And an insignificant reserve league would surely fade into nothing after a while.
Many of the current state championships consist of two stages, so maybe a one stage competition would be more practical, but again this would be removing a lot of the tradition involved in these ancient cups.
A break for international games is definitely needed, so fans aren’t watching important games between Internacional and Santos, minus Leandro Damião and Neymar.
An effectively organised season structure with fewer games in the year would be better for players, teams, fans, and for the progression of the league as a whole. It would also mean that more important games have a special edge to them, which could attract more fans to the stadiums, and go some way to halting Brazil’s declining attendances.
Unfortunately it will be the state leagues which will be first to get the chop, but if done properly and with a mind on tradition, it could be done with minimal fuss. Recent reports from Brazil suggest that the Ministry of Sport are pushing for the Brazilian league to mirror schedule of the major European leagues, but this raises its own problems as highlighted by Paulo Freitas in this article.
Still, this shows that some of the relevant authorities in Brazil realise that the problem is there, but as you can see, solving it will be much trickier than perhaps it should be.
Follow James on Twitter – @JDNalton
