The season starts this weekend in Brazil with the ‘Estaduales’. In other words, the regional competitions: the Paulista, Carioca, Gaucho, Mineiro, Bahiano, Pernambucano Championships… which are played by the Brasileirao, Serie B, C or D teams, or those that are only in local competitions.
The existence of these tournaments, increasingly questionable, lies in the tradition, since when the CBD (the former CBF) had not yet organized national competitions, they were the only professional events for the teams at the time of Pele or of Garrincha.
The ‘torcedors’ like it because they are decisive, if there are no surprises, in classics: Corinthians-Palmeiras, Flamengo-Vasco, At. Mineiro-Cruzeiro, Guild-International…. And winning the eternal rival, even in the least important clash of the year, has the weight of him. Let them tell it, for example, to Sao Paulo who, with Dani Alves, celebrated their Paulista in 2021 in style, after nine years of absolute drought.
The ‘Estaduales’ overload the calendar, since the greats, who compete in the League and Cup and continental competition, also have to face 15 or 16 more official matches, which is a huge physical toll. In 2020, Palmeiras won the Paulista, the Libertadores and the Copa do Brasil and played in the Club World Cup. The year ended with the world record of 91 official matches. Crazy. And it was not an isolated case, the same Verdao a year before played 92 times.
There is no solution in sight, no matter how much Abel Ferreira, the Portuguese coach of Palmeiras, current two-time champion of the Libertadores, shouts to heaven and describes the calendar as “inhuman” Y “crazy”, with matches day in and day out, due to Covid-19. And, all this, with displacements in a country of continental dimensions.
SOME STRATEGIC TOURNAMENTS FOR BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL
No matter how much they reduce the dates, the ‘Estaduales’ are not going to disappear because they make up the marrow of Brazilian soccer. To begin with, they finance the territorial federations, since each one of them manages the television rights and the rest of the income. Here the CBF does not paint anything.
And, secondly, because modest football, which employs thousands of players, lives its moment of glory when it can face the greats of its State. It is not just about exposure from sponsors, television and box office income, but it is the opportunity to sell their players to these clubs from the Brasileirao or Serie B. Without ‘Estaduales’, the little oxygen with which they already survive is cut off habitually.
The prototype of the Brazilian soccer player is not the one who plays for the Libertadores or will be transferred to Europe and will defend the Seleçao, but rather the one who is in precarious clubs, underpaid, sometimes below the minimum interprofessional salary. They play to survive or hope to make a sporting and social leap. Their year is divided into semesters, in the first there are the ‘Estaduales’ and, with a bit of luck, in the second they will play Series C or D or regional tournaments. To eliminate the Goiano, Cearense, Amazonense or Pernambucano Championship is to send thousands of soccer players out of work, which would be a social drama.