Class, Ethnicity, and Color in the Making of Brazilian Football

Introduction:

There’s the acknowledged notion that throughout the history of football, a clubs success has become synonymous with the interest of large companies that wish to make money off of said clubs. (Ex: Manchester City and Etihad or Arsenal and Emirates)

-Ironic aristocrats played that football in Brazil for such a long time, but by 1998, the face of Brazilian football was Ronaldo, a man who came from a very impoverished lifestyle.

 The football of the Brazilian Elites:

-How were companies capable of operating with the notion that their workers prioritized football over their actual jobs?

-Started to make football easier to access to other types of people, as different ethnicities became a more prevalent factor in the workforce.

-“Both Bangu and Andarai allowed players from the working classes-poor whites, mulattos, and black- to measure their strength and skills against those of players from the major elite clubs that had introduced football to brazil”(247) This became a revolutionary point in football history when men of different racial and economical backgrounds had the opportunity to prove that they were in fact as good or better than their white aristocratic counterparts.

 Social tension and crisis in amateur football:

-Companies began to realize that a good football team meant positive marketing, but this quickly compromised the integrity of early Brazilian football with Vasco’s highly debated squad.

-And while the league made the decision to cut out the Vasco club, other positive changes were made such as creating rules requiring players to know how to read and write.

Black players and the emergence of Brazilian professional football:

-It is interesting how there was such prejudice against football players in 1930s, and while as a world we have come a long way, there are still issues in the footballing world with racial tensions. For example when Yaya Toure played CSKA Moscow and hundreds of fans were yelling racial profanities at him or when Djibril Cisse had bananas thrown at him during a match.

-There was and still is a large divide between white and black/mulatto players.

The Resurgence of Racist stereotypes after the 1950 world cup defeat:

-The fact that many people attempted to argue that the Brazilian players were physically inferior due to their losses in the 1950 and 1954 world cup is a concerning thought that sets back the footballing community several decades.

 

Italian Immigrants, Brazilian Football, and the Dilemma of National Identity

-The issue of where certain football players are from is still an issue in today’s world. In France there is much controversy regarding its players on the team. If anything, many of the people in France do not support that many of their players are technically North African, Algeria, Turkish, etc.

-There is also the issue of players having the choice to play for a certain country. Pepe on Real Madrid should have played for Brazil because that’s where he was born but chose to play for Portugal.

-There is the belief that through football, immigrants have a better way of becoming integrated into society and solidifying their identities. But early in the 20^th century we see how Brazilian clubs were very exclusive, allowing only white aristocracy to participate.
The Experience of Palestra Italia:

-A club that was technically exclusive to Italians but also consisted of working class men and was a high caliber team.

-This was the early stage of realizing that Italians were in fact a very prominent group in Brazil. “Between 1877 and 1930, Italians comprised over 36 percent of the four million immigrants who entered the country”(283)

-Through their exclusivity, the club became very popular, arousing mass support and boosting many Italian immigrants to fame and fortune, even allowing Italians to become a formidable part of the Brazilian economy.