In this month of June, Brazilian football should have been celebrating. The country commemorates this month its third title of world champion, won in 1970 in Mexico by the legendary Seleção de Pelé and Rivelino. It also celebrates the 70th anniversary of its Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, opened in June 1950 to accommodate (at the time) up to 200,000 spectators…
The coronavirus will have decided otherwise. Brazilian football has been stopped since mid-March. To celebrate the birthdays, the supporters had to be content with nostalgic reruns of the matches of yesteryear… Nobody imagines a resumption of the national championship for July 19, and the very official national day of soccer.
But since last week, a timid recovery has been outlined. The town hall and the powerful federation of the State of Rio de Janeiro have announced the return of the carioca championship, (opposing teams from the State of Rio). The first match took place on June 18, at Maracanã, pitting the small team of Bangu against that of Flamengo, holding the title at local, national and continental level, which easily won 3-0.
The atmosphere was twilight. The match was played without any supporters. All the players had to go through the “disinfection tunnel” and take their temperature, while the ball collectors sweated blood and water to clean the balls. To add a little more ambience, a field hospital for patients with Covid-19 is installed near the Maracanã. On the day of the match, two patients died there…
Overindebted clubs
In a country where the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc (1.1 million positive cases and 52,000 deaths), the resumption of the championship has sparked an outcry. Denouncing the health risks and the lack of training, the clubs of Botafogo and Fluminense refused any recovery before July, and announced to go to court to quash the decision.
And for good reason: the epidemic also affects footballers. In early June, Vasco da Gama counted sixteen players contaminated by SARS-CoV-2. On May 4, a 68-year-old masseur from the Flamengo team died from the Covid-19.
The crisis hits clubs, largely over-indebted, sometimes for several hundreds of millions of reais
The damage to the industry is already enormous soccer national, representing 9 billion euros annually and employing 156,000 athletes and professionals, distributed in more than 7,000 clubs. Loss of income linked to advertising, the sale of tickets, subscriptions, shirts and, above all, television rights … The crisis is hitting Brazilian clubs, which are largely over-indebted, sometimes for several hundred million reais.
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