by Simon Kuper
One night in 1999, I went to a soccer match in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium. The Maracanã was built to host the World Cup in 1950 and could seat 200,000 -- the largest stadium on earth. The match I saw featured Flamengo, the most popular club in Brazil, yet fewer than 10,000 people showed up. Many of them spent the game running up and down the running track, following the ball. The referee whistled shamelessly in Flamengo’s favor. Afterward, getting home at night was scary. This was Brazil -- home of the world’s best soccer players and the most dysfunctional league. Every good Brazilian player -- and many bad ones -- emigrated to staff clubs around the planet...[continued]
ALSO
Loucos de Futebol from CurtaDoc Acervo on Vimeo.
