Opinion – Renata Mendonça: Clubs do not know why they hire or why they fire coaches

In the last week, two more dismissals of coaches added to the astonishing statistics of Brazilian football.

In Serie A, Atlético-GO fired the third coach during the competition. Eduardo Baptista left the club after commanding the team for an incredible SIX games. In all – and for now – there were 18 dismissals of coaches in 20 clubs over the 29 rounds. Only four teams did not change coaches this season – Bragantino, Palmeiras, Fortaleza and São Paulo.

In Serie B, Bahia decided to leave Enderson Moreira and will now go to his third coach in an attempt to return to Serie A –Eduardo Barroca has already been announced. In the second division, only two clubs remained with the same coaches in these 32 rounds (Cruzeiro and Criciúma).

These layoffs are not happening today, but to understand them, it may be important to go back a step in the process to analyze the hirings. What are the criteria that a club takes into account to define a manager? How is this person’s work evaluated over time? What makes the manager understand that the chosen professional can no longer be useful, a decision that can come weeks, months or a few games after his hiring, cases of Fábio Carille at Athletico-PR (stayed 21 days at the club) and Eduardo Baptista at Atlético-GO (30 days)?

A scientific study carried out by Matheus Galdino, master in sport management and doctoral candidate in sport science at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, along with researchers Lara Lesch and Pamela Wicker, revealed the methods of hiring and firing coaches in clubs in the main divisions. of Brazilian football. 26 elite coaches were heard between January and April 2021, including names who have won national and international titles, and even competed in Olympic Games and World Cups.

Asked how they were approached by clubs at the time of hiring, if there was any “job interview” at the time of contact or if managers used to ask them to talk a little about work methodology and game philosophy, all answered that they had rarely had experiences so.

“I’ve never been interviewed. Do you believe that? I’ve worked in more than 200 teams! How do I play, what is my line of work, management, concept, game model… Nothing, nothing!”, said one of the coaches mentioned in the study. .

The most traditional methods for hiring coaches, according to this study, were phone calls and face-to-face meetings. But the conversation almost every time was purely and simply financial.

Mainly involving two issues. Is the trainer available/interested in the position? Does it fit financially into the club’s budget? If the answer was “yes” to these two questions, the deal would be with the coach’s manager just to formalize contract details.

In the same way that the managers – many of them behave like mere fans, without in-depth knowledge about the field and the ball – did not make a judicious choice for hiring, the study revealed that the decision to resign also came without much explanation. Sometimes over a phone call, sometimes in a face-to-face meeting or even via WhatsApp message. A sequence of bad results and pressure from the fans and the press helped to create a favorable context for the managers to opt for the departure of the coach, who almost never received elaborate justifications for his dismissal.

Bad for the coaches who accept to be part of this seesaw, bad for the clubs that support this back-and-forth. If we want to improve the level of the game and the coaches here, we need new practices. Today’s football is too professional for so much amateurism.