Chapter 22: The Kingdom of Football in Confusion
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In the second round of the tournament, Sao Paulo challenged Gama away.
Gama is a team from Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, which is not a strong team and is definitely not a traditional powerhouse in Brazilian football.
However, there was one thing that the team did that made a splash - they took the Brazilian Football Federation directly to the civil court.
That was in 1999. When the league finally ended that year, traditional powerhouse Botafogo faced an embarrassing result of relegation. But as a traditional giant in Brazilian football, how can they easily accept the fate of relegation?
So the Brazilians, who are good at taking advantage of the rules, began to use their brains.
According to the rules of the Brazilian Football Federation, there are four teams to be relegated this season, but it is not the final league points of the season that determine who is relegated, but the average points of the first round robin of the 1998 and 1999 seasons. What is the purpose of such a strange regulation? This is to protect the interests of the big clubs, and to ensure that the traditional giants of Brazilian domestic football are not accidentally relegated.
However, such a bizarre decision is not unique to the Brazilian Football Federation, they learn the rules of the Argentine domestic league, and in Argentina, even need to refer to the results of the previous three seasons.
But even so, those giants still don't give face to the Brazilian Football Federation.
According to this rule, Botafogo, a traditional powerhouse in Rio de Janeiro, will be relegated for sure.
Botafogo have a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Sao Paulo in one game this season. But Sao Paulo used a striker called Sandro Iroshi at the time. The striker is not technically a member of the São Paulo squad due to alleged age fraud and transfer fee disputes, so the São Paulo club is an illegal use of players. Botafogo FC relied on this to file a lawsuit with Brazil's Supreme Court of Arbitration for Sport. The Court of Arbitration for Sport naturally ruled in favour of Botafogo, and the match was considered a victory for Botafogo. Not only did Botafogo get the extra three points, but they also averaged points over two seasons to be out of the relegation zone.
However, in this way, the other traditional Brazilian giant, the Brazilian international team, will be in the bottom four and need to be relegated. Of course, the international team did not dare to give up. As it happens, Sao Paulo also used Sandro Iroshi in a match against them, which had a score of 2:2. The International team did the same, filing a lawsuit with the Supreme Court of Arbitration for Sport**, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the International team won the event, and the international team went from one point to three points in that game, and the total average points of the two seasons also put them out of the relegation zone.
However, the appeal results of the two giants made the Gama team, which did not have any relegation first, but because of their extra points, they ended up in the bottom four and had to be relegated to the second division. This team was finally promoted from the second division to the first division last season, and it is natural to be angry that this team has only participated in one season's competition, so it has to endure such unfair treatment. They went straight bypassing the Court of Arbitration for Sport and took the Brazilian Football Federation to the civil court.
It would not be a big deal to take the Brazilian Football Federation to civil court just to take it to court.
In Brazil, the reputation and image of the National Football Federation are not very good.
The real sensation was actually the consequences of this......
The civil court ruled that Gama won and they could remain in the First Division for the 2000 season. FIFA, which has always opposed the team's lawsuit in the civil court, immediately decided to ban the Gama team from participating in all levels of competition. This puts the Brazilian Football Federation in a dilemma. If it is in accordance with the laws of the country, then the Gama team should be allowed to participate. However, FIFA banned the Gama team from the competition. With less than a month to go before the league starts, no one knows if there will be any organization to take on the game. In protest of this absurdity, there was even a fan who went on a hunger strike in front of the headquarters of the Brazilian Football Federation in Rio.
In Brazilian football, the "Thirteen Clubs" are very powerful, and they can completely influence the football of the whole country. Although the name is "Club Thirteen", there are actually twenty big clubs.
The big clubs came up with a way to do it, and they decided to hold a one-off event, the Havelange Cup, independent of the Brazilian Football Federation. In order to legitimately get rid of this disobedient Gama team, any resemblance to the Havelange Cup and the national league had to be redesigned. So a total of one hundred and four teams were invited to participate in the teams that were divided into four levels, called "units", and were distinguished by color. It seems that it can be fooled around.
But how could the Gama team swallow this breath? They took it to court again and won the right to participate in the "blue unit", which is a slightly disguised First Division. When the Havelange Cup finally began, the number of participating teams had grown to 116, making it the largest tournament in the history of Brazilian football.
Even by the same standards as the original competitions were flawed, the Havelange Cup's organizational structure was terrible. In the "blue unit", some teams have three more home games than other teams, a third of the games are rescheduled, and one team has not played in a month......
The relegation of a team or not has led to such a chaotic competition, this is Brazil, this is Brazilian football.
Many people's impression of the chaos of Brazilian football may be because of this - although the previous Brazilian league was chaotic enough, the Havelange Cup appeared at the turn of the century and the media became more and more developed, so it was naturally known by more people.
In Brazil, Brazilians have always been able to find a way to deal with the rules whenever the need arises. In Brazil, rules are used to overturn, and people are used to finding connections and going through the back door rather than following the rules and regulations.
Perhaps this is also the reason why Brazil is called "South American China". In a way, Brazil and China are really similar......
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There is not much to say about Sao Paulo's away game against Gama, and the game itself may not be as interesting as the turmoil caused by Gama in the first place.
Glory did not score or assist in this game, but Sao Paulo, who were good and in good form, comfortably beat Garma 2-0 away.
Although there were no goals or assists, Rongguang's performance was still recognized by many people. Especially the commentators.
From their professional point of view, judging whether a player's performance is good or not cannot be judged simply by whether he scores goals and assists.
Especially a player with a single characteristic like Rongguang, even if he doesn't score, he can play a tactical role involved, which is already very remarkable.
Only Rong Guang was very depressed when he left the game.
Because he didn't get anything except the appearance fee, and the goal award and assist award were all lost.
He actually worked hard to score in the game.
He kept trying to shoot.
But alas, he didn't have the luck of the goal today.
Kaka played five minutes more than the first game in this game, coming in the 75th minute.
Instead of glory.
He didn't score either, though.
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After the game, because Glory did not score, criticism of Osvaldo's stubbornness increased.
They believe that the reason for Kaka's poor performance is that he was given too little time.
The last game was ten minutes, and this one has increased to fifteen minutes.
What is 15 minutes enough?
Kaka goes up and warms up, and the game is over!
What else can you expect from him?
Some media posted Kaka's depressed expression in the game.
Images are always much more powerful than words.
This picture alone can make countless Kaka fans, especially female fans, feel sad and angry.
However, Kaka has not publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with his current situation, he has just trained harder while waiting for his opportunity.
The pressure is all on Sao Paulo coach Osvaldo.
The host of a TV show also teased him on a talk show he hosted.
"Who is the most virtuous man in all of St. Paul right now? São Paulo's head coach Osvaldo de Oliveira, of course! He completely ignored the protests and anger of tens of thousands of female fans and insisted on pressing Kaka on the bench! It's courageous, if it were my ......."
The host shook his head and smacked his lips. "I may have knelt in front of Kaka and begged him to play! Don't mess with anyone, don't mess with women! Especially the avid star-chasers! ”
The audience burst into laughter.
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In the third round of the league, Sao Paulo is away again, this time against Atlético Paranaense.
This is also the first time that Rong Guang has been in Brazil for more than half a year and has met a team that is not from São Paulo or Rio.
Atlético Paranaense is a team from Curitiba, Paraná.
In Paraná, they have won 20 state leagues, which is considered a strong team in Paraná. But in the whole of Brazil, they are not a great team.
In Brazil, even Paraná is not considered a football powerhouse.
But it's such a team, and now it's the defending champions – they won the Brazilian National Championship last season!
Brazilian football in the new century is very chaotic, not only in terms of format, but also in a chaotic situation. Due to the lack of superstars, the teams are closer in strength. Therefore, the chances of winning the championship have become even greater. You know, last season when Atletico Paranaense won the championship, they also experienced a change of manager.
There are no big stars in the team, from the head coach to the players, all of them are little-known small characters, and it is such a team that won the national championship last season.
And in the quarterfinals of the championship, such a team defeated São Paulo!
Sao Paulo had the veteran Leonardo, the in-form Baptista, and the rising star Kaka, who had just emerged in the Rio-São Paulo tournament, but they also lost 2-1 away to Atletico Paranaense, and it was in the last ten minutes of the match that Atletico Paranaense's top scorer Alex Mineiro scored.
If it weren't for Atlético Paranaense, maybe last season's league champion would have been Sao Paulo.
This time, going away again, the whole Sao Paulo team is maintaining a revenge mentality.
Riding on the prestige of the Rio-São Paulo tournament winner, São Paulo went to the Mario Celso Petraglia Stadium in Curitiba.