It matters little that the clubs become public limited companies, that investment capital arrives from abroad, that Brazil has first-class stadiums (it is the heritage of the 2014 World Cup) or that the teams reign in the continental ones… because there are stale customs, too ingrained, they don’t change. And one of them is the perks of the ‘organized twisted’, that is, the ultras, who continue to function as pressure groups, through physical or verbal intimidation.
They are a harmful parallel power, exercising a monopoly on violencewith the complicity of the directors, sometimes due to inaction fearing that they will end up being a target, and others with their complicity because they do the dirty work and are the executing arm of their interests.
Two unfortunate episodes that have occurred in Flamengo and Corinthians, the two most popular clubs in the country, have staged the unlimited power (because no one dares to stop them) of these groups of radicals who have taken justice into their own hands after sports failures. The unexpected loss of the Carioca Championship against Fluminense caused an earthquake in the rubronegro club, which accepted the request of the ‘organized crooks’ for their leaders to meet at the Training Center with the heavyweights of the squad.
Faced with widespread criticism from the press, the leaders took a step back and canceled the appointment, but the emboldened ‘torcidas’ showed up before a training session. To the cry of “no one passes here & rdquor; they coerced everyone who accessed the club’s facilities by forcing the dark windows of their vehicles to be lowered, so that the players were insulted, demanding greater professionalism, only some, like the Uruguayan By Arrascaeta, were saved from burning and were cheered. The images are grotesque.
THREATS TO THE TIMAO PLAYERS
In Sao Paulo, Corinthians fell in the semifinals of the Paulista Championship against Sao Paulo, and lost in the debut of the Libertadores. The fuse lit. The Gavioes da Fiel, the main ‘organized crooked’ of the club that has thousands of associates, went into a rage. He released a statement with the suggestive title “Either you play for love, or you play for terror & rdquor ;, implicitly threatening the squad.
Hours later, the board laid out a red carpet for them to enter the sports city and have two meetings: the first with five of the most representative footballers, among whom was the former Blaugrana Paulinho and the goalkeeper Cassius, that, coincidences of life, that same week he and his family received death threats online; and later they sat down with the sports leadership: the director of football, Robert Andrade, manager alessandro and the coach, the Portuguese Vitor Pereirawho had his first bath in the reality of Brazilian football.
The Timao radicals already played a fundamental role in the removal of Sylvinho, whom they harassed for months, pressuring the president, Duilio Monteiro-Alves, who ended up giving in and gave them his head. At Palmeiras, for example, they forced the dismissal of the communication director accused of being a Corinthian fan.
The ‘organized crooks’ do not (yet) reach the level of the Argentine bravas who extort money from their own players and who roam freely with firearms. However, there is no directive that wants to start clipping their wings, fighting to take away the powers that they themselves have taken for decades.