Football

Ecstatic fans in vast stadiums. Carefree kickabouts on golden beaches. The unmistakeable yellow shirts. Jogo bonito ('beautiful game'). Brazilian football evokes many images, but the country's relationship with the sport is far more complex than the clichés suggest. Since its introduction in the 1890s, football has not only entertained but been made use of to exclude and to control.

When Brazil became a republic in 1889, it was a country of more than three million square miles and around ten million people. Most of the population were illiterate and disenfranchised, and slavery had only just been abolished. Although Brazil had a monarchy, which may explain why it did not split into different countries, more was needed to weld together this disparate assortment of peoples, interests and influences. Football helped to provide this, and became a national passion.

'The English invented it, Brazilians perfected it' (old Brazilian saying)

Fable has it that in 1894 Charles Miller, the Brazilian-born son of a Scottish rail engineer, returned from his schooling in England with a football tucked under his arm and went on to ignite Brazil's infatuation with football. Miller organized matches of this strange new game, as did another son of British immigrants, Oscar Cox, who founded Brazil's first football club, Fluminense, in 1902.

At the outset, football in Brazil was the leisure pursuit of privileged Anglo-Brazilians, who did not appreciate their 'noble game' being played by the largely non-white lower classes, and did their best to prevent others from playing or even watching the sport. The elite's determination to keep football for the white and rich was rooted as much in an attempt to maintain the status quo as in racist Victorian attitudes. In 1888 Brazil was the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery and, by the time football arrived, the country had a growing underclass largely made up of former slaves. The elite, who had retained most of their privileges, were eager to find something to demonstrate their difference from the hoi polloi. Football appeared to fit the bill.

However, the ease with which the game could be understood and played made it difficult for the privileged class to keep the new sport to itself. By 1910 makeshift pitches had sprung up across Brazil, as informal kickabouts took place on streets and spare pieces of land, with oranges or rolled-up socks for balls.

In a last-ditch attempt to keep out the underclass, Brazil's official clubs insisted that players must be amateurs and have another source of income, largely ruling out black players from poorer backgrounds. Mixed-race players who managed to join official clubs were subjected to racist abuse and vilification; Fluminense gained its nickname, pó de arroz (rice powder), because a mixed-race player, Carlos Alberto, used to whiten his skin with rice powder before matches in an attempt to fit in.

It was not until Vasco da Gama, Rio's Portuguese club, started picking players because of their ability rather than their race that the white elite's grip on the game began to loosen. According to Alex Bellos, in his book Futebol, The Brazilian Way of Life, Vasco got round the insistence on amateur status by employing their players in the shops and factories of Rio's Portuguese community. When the elite clubs responded by insisting that players know how to write their own names in order to play in matches – a test that most of Vasco's illiterate players failed – the club organized literacy lessons and got many players to shorten their long names, starting the tradition of Brazilian players using abbreviations or nicknames.

Bellos argues that football's racist origins also helped to forge the Brazilian style of play: black players who came up against white players used dribbling and other improvised skills to avoid physical contact with their opponents and the retaliation that could be expected to follow.

Brasil tetracampedo

A 2–0 victory by a team of Sao Paulo and Rio's best players over visiting Exeter City in 1914 is generally considered Brazil's first international match, but it was not until 1938 that the power of football as a unifying national force was fully realized. President Getulio Vargas, who had come to power on the back of an uprising in 1930, centralized the sport, creating a national football council and funding Brazil's trip to the 1938 World Cup in France. There, for the first time, Brazil made it past the first round, eventually reaching the semi-finals. The team and its style of play were personified by centre-forward Leonidas, who became Brazil's first football hero (whom many Brazilians credit with inventing the bicycle kick). The national team, or seleção, became a symbol that all Brazilians could understand and get behind.

Amateurism collapsed in Brazil in the early 1930s, thanks largely to the introduction of professional contracts by European clubs, which meant that Brazilian clubs risked losing their players unless they paid them. By 1933, Sao Paulo and Rio had professional leagues, with one Rio club, Bonsucesso, fielding a team of eleven black players in its inaugural year. Football was finally open to all Brazilians.

The rising importance of Brazil as a power in football was recognized in 1950, when the country was chosen to stage the first FIFA World Cup after the Second World War. The famous Estadio do Maracaña was built in Rio for the tournament, and on 16 July 1950 some 200,000 spectators crowded into it, expecting to see the national team defeat Uruguay in the final and take the Jules Rimet trophy. However, Uruguay won 2–1, sparking tears, heart attacks and even some suicides among fans.

The next World Cup was held in Switzerland in 1954. Brazil was again one of the favourites. This time they were knocked out by Hungary, in what went down in football history as the infamous 'Battle of Berne'. Three players were sent off, and the Brazilian team and supporters invaded the Hungarian dressing-room after the match, keen to continue the fight. The Brazilians were called 'animals' for their behaviour, and over the following decades this negative view of Latin American teams prevailed.

The seleção's hour arrived at last in 1958 in Sweden. Their victory owed much to the arrival of a new star: Edson Arantes do Nascimento, better known as Pelé. Only 17 at the time of the tournament, the Brazil number 10 scored two goals in the final against the home team, and Brazil went on to win 5–2.

Brazil won again in 1962, but it is the dazzling team of the 1970 tournament that is widely considered the greatest of all time. Jairzinho, Rivelino, Tostao and, of course, Pelé inspired the seleção to a third victory, the footage of which – broadcast around the world in colour for the first time – helped to cement the iconic status of the team in the yellow shirts.

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