I’m often asked why I don’t support the Brazilian NT, and will root for Messi/Argentina in the World Cup. I’m gonna list here a few reasons:

1- FIFA, Brazilian Government and their World Cup: Brazilian government just spent 15 billion dollars to build the stadiums and the “infrastructure” to host the World Cup. Health, education and security saw none of that money.

FIFA earned, just in 2013, 5 billion dollars from the World Cup. The WC belongs to them, we just happen to pay the bill.

170 thousand families have been taken from their homes, places they have lived for 30-40 years, so “poor people from the favelas” were not see near the stadiums. 80 thousand of them in Rio de Janeiro alone. They got very little money for this crime, and most of them were moved to new “houses” 60KM away from their now ran over homes.

Brazilian Government will spend 1 billion dollars just in security for the World Cup. Police and armed forced will all be running around. To protect the tourists? Nope. To make sure Brazilian citizens will not do what they did last June and flood the streets. Yes, a minority took part in riots and violence and destruction. But most of us (I was there), were just walking around with chants, banners and booing. TV just shows the violence, but 99% of people were not acting violently.

The World Cup will be a joke. Only 24% of the hotels are booked for the World Cup days, and most airports and not even ready, and won’t be come June, to receive the tourists. And don’t get me started on public transportation and security. Also: if you are coming, prepare to spend, because everything is overpriced already. The magic of football, huh?

2- Brazilians. The majority of Brazilians do not care about the style of football we play anymore. The last World Cup we played while actually aiming to play an attractive brand of football was 1986. Yes, 28 years ago. Since then, since people like Telê Santana left, the pragmatic coaches took over. Parreira, Zagallo, Scolari, Dunga. We won 2 titles since then, reaching 3 finals, but if not for the brilliance of players like Romário, Rivaldo and Ronaldo, we wouldn’t have done that at all.

The culture here is about winning. Doesn’t matter how. That’s why there aren’t coaches that play an attractive style of football in Brazil anymore. Scolari, Muricy, Abel Braga, Tite, Mano Menezes. Those are the highest rated coaches here. None of them care about anything other than the results they get. Style? Doesn’t matter at all. Being able to say “We have more WC titles than anyone” is all they care about. That’s why they support what Scolari, the most arrogant person you can think of, say.

Brazilians when confronted by people like me, say I’m not being “patriotic”. Yes, people in Brazil think supporting a NT team is the ultimate way for a citizen to show he loves his country. As you are gonna read in the following paragraphs, I’m being patriotic for not spending my money on anything related to CBF, and not watching their team. Cause this team does not belong to Brazilians. It belongs to CBF and their crooked rulers.

3- Scolari. This man represents everything that’s wrong about the Brazilian people and Brazilian football right now. Utter arrogance, while gloating about a history that he only works to tarnish, and the “belief” that everything about the country is fine and dandy. Scolari was relegated in 2012, playing the most primitive and grotesque brand of football you can think of. 3 CDMs, a very good set piece taker, and only scoring goals from said set pieces. Do not think he has evolved in the last 2 years. The difference now is that the players with talent to bail him out. Scolari will never shine as the coach of a mid-table team. His defenses will always be fearless, but if he doesn’t have star players, just a free kick taker, he will get you relegated. Just ask Palmeiras.

Scolari does not pick the best Brazilian players available for the NT. He picks“family”, players he knows will do whatever he tells them. That’s why Neymar was the player with the most fouls committed in the Confederation Cup. They will work hard and die for him. But “they” are not the best options available. He will gladly play 2 or 3 CDMs. Because his “style” of football is: do not concede, kick the shit out of the opposition, rely on the stars to settle things out, and counters. That’s it. Scolari is the Brazilian Big Sam.

4- CBF, the Brazilian FA, is the most corrupt sporting entity you can think of, after FIFA. They sold the rights to every single friendly the NT will play until 2021 to an Arabian company, ISE (http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/esportes,parte-do-cache-pago-a-cbf-por-amistosos-era-desviada,1064055,0.htm). That’s right. The Brazilian FA does not decide which friendlies the NT will play, and won’t for a long time. Getting friendlies that would challenge the team and develop it? Why, when we can get a lot of money for playing against a random African team at a Chinese stadium? Their focus is money, selling the famous Brazilian NT brand and getting millions. Thing is: they do not invest that money in the brazilian football at all.

Brazilian football is dying, and the sporting entity that supposedly takes care of it, sits on millions. They do use that money for one thing, though: holding all the Brazilians teams hostage. Here’s how it works: the Brazilian Confederation of Football (CBF) counts with 27 state Federations of Football. The votes from those 27 federations should have power to change the people who run the CBF. They do not. CBF pays every single federation a copious amount of money every single year. The votes are going nowhere. The federations hold the clubs as hostages. Most of them, that can’t even get a single sponsorship, cannot exist without the money from the federations. That’s one of the main reasons the clubs do not rebel, the main reason we do not have a Professional Football League in Brazil. Think about that for a second. Brazil does not have a LEAGUE!

One last thing about CBF: it has always been run by the most crooked kind of men you can think of. Corruption, money laundering, shady deals and even making the life easier for the dictatorial governments that plagued South America from the 60s until the 80s. The current CBF president is known for giving a heated speech where he condemned a journalist during the Brazilian Dictatorial Military Government. That journalist was killed in prison a few weeks later.(http://download.uol.com.br/esporte/diario1.pdf) And (http://vtb.r7.com/ER7_RE_JR_FOTOGRAFO_570kbps_2013-05-27_b155cbec-c72a-11e2-834e-539f8b11fe49.jpg)

Havelange, Teixeira, Marin. The most despicable kind of man you can think of. Those are the names of the people who have run CBF until today. The new guy, Del Nero (who ran unopposed, obviously), is just as bad, coached by all the names I just listed. Bad, corrupt men, that couldn’t care less about football. Making money, selling the brand and, if possible, winning with the most pragmatic style of football you can think of.

5- Globo, one of the biggest TV stations in the world. Famous for their soap operas, and for being, by a mile, the station with the best ratings in Brazil. They also helped the Dictatorial Military Government Brazil had to endure for 20 years, but let’s not get into that.

Globo, as well as CBF and the Federations, hold the clubs hostage, especially the big clubs, that usually play on First Division. They decide even the timeslots. There are matches at 9pm on Saturdays. Do you think there’s any chance of a stadium filling up under such circumstances? The Brazilian “League” is the 18th most watched in the world, with an average of 13k people watching the matches. Yes! Brazil, the “footballing country” has lower attendance than Argentina, France, Netherlands, Mexico, USA, China, Japan, Australia and even the English and German Second Divisions.

That is ridiculous. And Globo and CBF are guilty for that.

Every single club in Brazil would be in dire financial situation if the money from the TV rights was taken from them. Globo and CBF are the ones that rule Brazilian football, not the clubs. And they are destroying our football and making people stop going to the stadiums.

6- The violence. I live in Goiânia, Goiás. Our best team is Goiás EC, and we have a good old stadium, with a 45-50k capacity. It’s 3km from my house, I could go there walking. I haven’t been there for 10 years.

Why? Every single big match there are fights, and about 15-20 people are killed each year. 20 people. A year. Just in my city. I have been a culé for years, and I haven’t heard of ONE supporter being killed while watching a match. Zero.

Brazilians not only do not care about the football style the NT team plays, or their clubs. They only care about winning. And if they can win AND beat the shit out of people from the opposing team, wonderful! A few days ago someone threw a toilet from a stadium, 30m drop, and killed a supporter.

Families do not go to stadiums anymore. I never took my girlfriend and will never take children to stadiums. The risks are too high. Life is not respected in Brazil. 53k murders a year. Dozens of football killings.

The clubs, CBF and Globo are all responsible for that. Every single big league in the planet has private security in the stadiums. Obviously. The clubs will make money, so they better pay to make sure the supporters can watch the game safely.

Not here. The police, sorry, the Military Police, cause we are a country that still has many ties to its dictatorial days, is the one entity responsible for the safety of supporters. And I have watched them beating a father who was just protecting his daughter. The presence of the police sometimes even causes WORSE fights. It’s a mess. A sad, sad mess.

If CBF, Globo and the teams wanted to have a strong product, they would have moved to change that. To make people want to go to stadiums. They do not. And the prices, as most leagues in the world, are way too expensive. I paid 200 dollars to watch the Libertadores Final, and I was basically at the rafters. Oh, Atletico-MG made 7 million dollars just for that final match, by the way.

7- The clubs. They may be hostages to CBF, the Federations and Globo, but guess what? THEY HOLD THE ACTUAL PRODUCT! Without them, there is no football, no party, and no show. Yet, they don’t care in the slightest. They are not united, they never formed a LEAGUE (!), and just fend for themselves. Just as in Spain, the TV rights are sold individually here, and there are huge differences from the big teams get, and the small ones. It’s gross.

And they are far from being well run. All of them, without exception, rely on the TV money, and help from banks. Basically all big Brazilians teams are supported by banks. Even FEDERAL banks are supporting them. They do get money, a few of them have a really high attendance, but they are not run professionally. Not run like the companies they are. Just check how grossly in debt most of them are: http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/noticia/2014/05/flamengo-reduz-dividas-mas-segue-na-lideranca-entre-os-clubes-brasileiros.html.

Well run clubs, like Corinthians and Cruzeiro, should be completely dominant in the coming years. But hey, the sold their souls to get new stadiums, World Cup stadiums, and will be just as in debt as the other teams.

All are badly run, they do not stick together, and all will suffer to even pay salaries to their players.

To sum this up: I’ve been called a “hater”, “unpatriotic” and several other terms for voicing my position against NT and the World Cup. I just listed my reasons to that. Am I really a “hater?

PS: You should watch the next 2 videos, since you’ve read my 2 thousand words on the subject.

“No, I’m not going to the World Cup”. 6 minutes long. ()

“On the Way to the World Cup”. 26 minutes long. ()