Fighting for soul of Brazilian soccer

When I visited the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro in 2008, I wrote a story for The Michigan Daily about how that stadium was the most democratic space in a city renowned for inequality. It was a placewhere people from all over the city, from every social background, could gather to enjoy the national pasttime.

The last few years have made soccer in Brazil significantly less accessible to the everyday fans, with escalating ticket prices and rule changes that have reshaped the experience of going to the stadium.

One of my coworkers at the university is involved with the National Front of Soccer Fans (FNT, according to its name in Portuguese), an organization whose mission is make soccer in Brazil more democratic and available to everybody.

Founded in 2012 in response to drastic changes in stadium rules and ticket prices, the FNT is fighting against the country´s ´´soccer mafia´´ that has controlled soccer policy for decades. In recent years, the national soccer federation has significantly reduced the kinds of instruments fans can brings to games and limited the kinds of banners they can display, while raising box office prices. Tickets that used to cost as little as R$1 (0;50) per ticket now cost R$50-60 ($25-30) at the cheapest.

In an effort to maintain soccer´s role as a unifying force in Brazilian society, the FNT engages in a variety of activities. In its two year´s of existence, the group has gained thousands of symathizers around the country and an active core of  dedicated members.

Some of FNT´s first actions were a bit more aggressive, such as occupying  the Brazilian Soccer Federation´s office in Rio de Janeiro or bringing banners to the games to suppor their cause. They launched Twitter campaigns to raise awareness of hypocrisy and corruption.

They have decided to adopt a strategy that focuses more on legal processes to achieve change. This includes a reformation of a statute about the rights and responsibilities of soccer fans in Brazil, changing the rules so that the national government has greater power to regulate sports, and changing the electoral processes in the national soccer federation.

My friend says they are also promoting some progressive strategies to make the game more available. He links the price of the entrance to soccer games to the right of Brazilians to leisure activities and culture, just like they should have reasonably priced cinema and theater. One of their ideas is that the minimum ticket price not exceed 2% of the monthly minimum salarly.

Many of the soccer clubs have significantly high debts to pay for stadium reforms and other poor financial decisions. They think that clubs could receive some sort of debt releif if they offer a certain number of tickets as reasonable prices.

Whether or not these policies are realistic is not for me to say. I don´t know enough about the subject. I enjoy the fact that they care enough about their national pasttime to try and keep it within reach for everyone in society.

I could not help but notice how some of the same trends that are reshaping the landscape of soccer in Brazil are also transforming the nature of college football. Although the FNT is still in its nascent stages, it is interesting to see how residents in another country are organizing to address these issues.