One game every three and a half days. In order to compete for all the titles of the season until the end, as was done recently by Palmeiras, Flamengo and Atlético-MG, Brazilian clubs will once again need to unfold in the face of an exhaustive schedule in 2022.
After the postponements caused by Covid, the novelty this year is the tight schedule for the Qatar World Cup, transferred from June to November due to the weather in the host country. But the debate around the match marathon is already very old.
Analysis carried out by leaf with data from 65 thousand games, played from 2014 to 2019 in 25 countries, confirms the anomaly of the Brazilian calendar and details the phenomenon observed since before the pandemic.
According to the survey, an elite team plays an average of 69 matches a year. They are 20 more in comparison with the representatives of the main European leagues, or 22 in relation to their South American neighbors.
At the center of the discussion are the state championships. Without the same value as before for most big clubs, they occupy 16 dates, from January to April.
Not coincidentally, the survey shows that teams from Spain and England — who have the best performances in European cups — play 15 and 16 fewer duels, respectively.
Even without the state ones, these two countries and Colombia would be the only ones with statistics equivalent to those of Brazil. The Brazilian team with the fewest games goes to the field more times than the protagonists of practically all other leagues.
In 2015, the Champions League, Copa del Rey, Spanish Championship, World Cup and Supercup winners Barcelona played 70 games. It was the highest total for a European club in the analyzed clipping, just one match above the Brazilian average.
For statistical purposes, the clubs present in the first division throughout the period were considered and the events of the last two years were discarded, due to distortions generated by the pandemic. The data are from the Sofascore website.
It is also no coincidence that six of the ten goalkeepers and four of the ten top athletes with the most minutes played on the planet in 2021 were working in Brazil, according to the Centro Internacional de Estudos do Esporte (CIES).
The calendar does not support the required days. Proof of this is that the CBF (Brazilian Football Confederation) does not suspend its competitions in periods known as FIFA Data, windows in which domestic calendars are interrupted by the world for clashes between teams.
The start of most state championships in the middle of the World Cup Qualifiers night was representative. The early debut of Palmeiras at Paulista was also symbolic due to their participation in the Club World Cup in February.
The call-ups took goalkeeper Weverton and defenders Gustavo Gómez and Kuscevic out of the final week of preparation for the tournament. The departure to Abu Dhabi will take place on Wednesday (2), the day after the duel between Brazil and Paraguay at Mineirão.
Corinthians, São Paulo, Flamengo and Atlético-MG also ceded athletes to the national teams. Less bad for the last two, as they started the year with alternative lineups – the CBF calendar reserved just 17 days for pre-season.
So, would it be enough for the big clubs to play the state ones with reserves or aspirants, like what Athletico-PR has been doing for a few seasons?
Not quite. With the table squeezed, the Brazilian Championship is played in just seven months, while the European leagues last between nine and ten. The marathon of two games a week becomes inevitable for those who advance in the knockout competitions.
The bottleneck is also technical and financial. To fight on several fronts, it is necessary to invest in numerous squads, qualified medical departments and logistical structure — charter flights, for example.
“The club ends up prioritizing goals. But there is a negative side in saving too much, as the team can reach the main tournaments at a lower level of competitiveness”, says physical trainer Felipe Rabelo, who spent time at Athletico-PR and today at Real Valladolid. , from Spain.
In the second semester, there is no time for training, and fatigue accumulates due to excessive travel.
“Performance is demanded, but the athlete does not have the conditions he needs. He is always at the limit. And performance is not just a physical issue. If there is wear and tear, concentration is also weakened”, observes Rabelo.
This year, Palmeiras can play up to 83 games. If you reach all the finals, you will have entered the field every three days and 13 hours. Flamengo has 79 matches on the horizon, and Atlético-MG, 78.
FIFA sets an interval of 72 hours between appointments. In Brazil, however, the rest period can be only 66, according to the General Regulations for Competitions.
According to Daniel Gonçalves, scientific coordinator of the Palmeiras health center, the recovery time of an athlete varies from 48 to 96 hours, and the maximum should be six games per month.
“The Brazilian model is totally unique, also because of our continental dimensions and even because of the climatic differences between the regions. Logistics is difficult, and the displacement, sacrificing. The player travels when he should be training or sleeping”, he says.
Instead of a tighter schedule, this year there will be one more round trip in the Copa do Brasil. Teams qualified directly for the finals will be able to play up to 12 duels for the tournament.
The matter is also debated in Europe. Spanish and English cups, for example, have been scaled back in recent decades, with most back-and-forth decisions turned into single duels.
Weeks before the meeting with Flamengo at the 2018 World Cup, Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp complained about the wear and tear of his team. The English team played 56 games that year. The carioca, 74.
There, it is worth mentioning, athletes summoned frequently also end up overloaded. One example is defender Rúben Dias, called on 71 times last year by Manchester City and Portugal. Same number as midfielder Allan, from Atlético-MG, without participation in the Brazilian team.
“We are not robots. There are more and more games and less rest”, criticized the goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, from Real Madrid and Belgium, after the dispute for third place in the last Nations League.
In Brazil, the discussion is much more urgent, but it has been going on for decades. There are those who defend the extinction of the state championships or the reduction of the national championship. Nothing that seems to disturb the CBF.
Author of 17 books on the history of sport, researcher Celso Unzelte recalls that strangling the regionals would mean priceless financial and sporting losses for football in the interior, in addition to unemployment for most of the year for most professionals.
“You can’t just throw the state teams away. It’s a geographical, historical, cultural and economic issue that other countries simply don’t have. We need to cut back on the flesh, because it’s not good even for small teams. But it’s not something that can be done on the basis of the pen. It is necessary to discuss a restructuring of Brazilian football”, he ponders.
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Source: Folha
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