Opinion – PVC: Looking at Brasília makes it seem that the country has deteriorated more than football

The sports section of this Folha opened January 1, 2002, the year of the penta, with an exclusive survey by Datafolha. It showed 58% of the population with the desire to keep Felipão as coach for the World Cup.

As the coach had only been in office for six months, eleven games, six wins and five losses, the answer didn’t seem far-fetched. The question was.

How would the coach of the national team change, on the first day of the year of the World Cup, if he was just starting his work? Twenty years later, there are people who would like to discuss the same thing about Tite.

Looking at Brasília makes it appear that the country has deteriorated more than football.

The last edition of Folha in 2001 informed that there had been overcrowding in São Januário, in the decision of the Brasileiro a year earlier.

Remember? On December 30, 2000, the final Vasco x São Caetano was stopped at 23 minutes of the first half, because the fence fell and injured more than 200 fans. Referee Oscar Roberto Godói was ready to restart the match, when an order came from the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Anthony Garotinho, demanding the cancellation.

São Januário had close to 35 thousand fans and the last release report by the Civil Defense dated from 1976.

Brazilian football is better in this regard. You can go to all the stadiums in São Paulo by subway, as well as to Maracanã. The seats are seated and the complaint of some of the critics today is that the arenas only receive the elite.

Anyone who goes to the northern sector of Allianz Parque pays R$139 per month and no more to watch the four games a month, which gives a bill of R$34 per game. It’s cheaper than going to the movies on Sundays.

Nor was there any publicity about the fact that going to the stadium does not require any more handling by cattle and that all stages in São Paulo can be reached on the subway tracks. The improvement, evident in some respects, doesn’t exclude the notion of what we’re behind in others.

It’s great that there is no xenophobia and that we accept foreign technicians. The probable arrival of Jorge Jesus at Atlético will make the three richest teams in the country to be managed by the Portuguese.

In 2001, before Felipão was hired, the possibility of foreign coaches in the national team was discussed. The name mentioned was that of Svem Goran Eriksson, a Swede, who speaks Portuguese and has worked for Benfica. Folha’s poll had 26% in favor of Felipão’s downfall. As alternatives, only veterans were pointed out, like Zagallo, Parreira or Luxemburgo.

2001 Brazil Cup champion, Tite had 2% of the preference. No foreigners were named. The English journalist Tim Vickery wrote a column, as a collaborator, in which he considered the optimism about the performance, in the World Cup, of a team classified by leaps and bounds to be absurd.

Three days ago, Atlético-MG investor Rubens Menin, on vacation in the United States, said that Brazil will not have a good campaign in the Cup and that it needs to work to become a reference again. You’re absolutely right about the need for work, even though chance can help bring the hex to the fore.

The penta was not likely, as you can see from a review of newspapers from twenty years ago.

The new year could be from the hex, though it’s not likely. Let it be, then, of our self-criticism. Admitting what has improved, working on what needs to evolve, to return to being a center of game culture, the country of football.

If Brazil had done this calmly, we would not have gone back thirty years in civility.

Happy 2022!