"The Faithful are Fantastic!" announced Corinthians on its social media pages this week. “The team had the biggest attendance of the first round of the Brasileirão”. Some 10,000 attendees more than second place, it was added.
Yet this told only half a story. In total, just a measly 28,000 fans showed up to see the club begin the defence of its national title at the weekend, leaving the Arena Corinthians 40% empty as the Série A rolled out across the country with barely a whimper.
Is Brazil falling out of love with the beautiful game? On the contrary. Just a over a week before this, in an open training session thrown before winning the São Paulo state championship final against bitter rivals Palmeiras, that same ground had received over 37,000 Corinthianos who flew flags, beat drums and let off flares in droves in order to drum up morale as they partied into the night.
Not to be outdone by Corinthians, as the two battle for the coveted spot of being Brazil’s most-supported side year-upon-year and boast upwards of 30 million fans each, Rio’s Flamengo put on their own treino aberto on Tuesday afternoon that saw 45,000-50,000 Flamenguistas occupy the Maracana.
While their primary cause was to motivate the team for their Libertadores clash with Santa Fe, the presence of many in attendance was driven by an ulterior motive which saw them take the opportunity to protest against unfair ticket prices in Brazil.
Though these amounts appear paltry when converted to pounds sterling and then compared to the premiums laid out by Premier League supporters, one has to take into account that more than half of a population of 207 million inhabitants coincidentally earns around £207 monthly minimum wage, or 1000 Brazilian reais. Coupled with this, the country is currently still wading through the worst recession in its history as unemployment stands at 12-13% to a backdrop of high inflation on everyday goods and an already jaw-dropping cost of living for a developing nation.
With tickets ranging from 50-100 reais per match, those who love the game the most are simply priced out of seeing their beloved team, whom they often support in fanático fashion far harder than they follow the national counterpart and for which even the cheapest seats for friendlies and World Cup qualifiers often surpass three or four times these sums.
Ironic at the same time are club owners’ laments over half-empty stadiums - often yet to be paid off and bringing about a string of unwanted financial hardships - which invoke the anger of futebol enthusiasts even further. Thanks to a mix of short-sightedness and stubbornness, the powers that be refuse to lower ticket prices to a more affordable five, 10 or 20 reais in order to fill the terraces and get more support behind their players. Instead, there seems to be a preference for losing even more money and playing in front of the mere few thousand who are lucky enough to be able to afford entry.
Until such problems are recognised, expect Brazilian football and its clubs to fall further into hot water. Not just in financial terms, but with loyal fans whose best chance of seeing their team up close remains solely provided by a television set or the spur-of-the-moment public training session.
