Brazil Allegedly Sold Squad Selection to Marketing Firm, A Reminder International Soccer Is a Soulless Business
By Ty Duffy
The Brazilian newspaper O Estadao reported that Brazil sold partial control of its squad selection to the marketing firm ISE, as part of a multimillion-dollar deal. The deal, reportedly consummated in 2006, mandates that Brazil’s “A Team” be made available for all international matches. Brazil must provide medical justification to ISE for removing one of those players from a lineup.
Brazil’s federation denied the report. Interpret that how you will. This harkens back to conspiracy claims that Ronaldo was reinserted into the lineup for the 1998 World Cup Final, hours after being removed after suffering a nervous fit, for corporate reasons.
The notion scandalizes. Few are gratified viewing soccer as first and foremast, a grand enterprise for marketing and personal profit. But, that’s more or less the reality. The World Cup is the “single greatest marketing tent pole on the planet.”
Brazil is big business. Just the swoosh on the chest earns the CBF $33 million per year from Nike. Players will wear those sassy new warmup jackets in the 90 degree heat!
Brazil friendlies are big business. The players have been international soccer’s troubadours for years. Stars are based on Europe. The national team seldom appears in Brazil. Eleven of the team’s last 13 friendlies have been abroad – London, Paris, Vienna, Istanbul, Singapore, New York, Miami, Johannesburg, Toronto, Beijing, and Seoul. The other two were warm up friendlies for the 2014 World Cup.
The selling point, for sponsors and ticket buyers, is to see Neymar and other Brazilian stars. It’s not surprising there would be some obligation to field a full-strength XI. It would be surprising if there weren’t in any other entertainment field.
Does this mean soccer is soulless and corrupt? Absolutely, when not downright criminal. It always has been. The only difference from past decades is scale. When the sport was “pure” and “amateur,” that was code for “exclusive to wealthy gentlemen” and “all-white.”
Soccer’s saving grace, as it always has been, is producing enough moments of beauty and glee to top off your reservoir of cognitive dissonance.
At least we now have a plausible explanation for Fred.
[Getty]