Footy Blog!!

Until his death in the late 80s Brazilian TV had a wonderful presenter called Chacrinha, who conducted an anarchic programme wearing carnival clothes, carrying a giant horn and yelling out nonsense slogans. “Who wants cod?” he would shout as he hurled fish into the audience.

One of his favourite slogans was “I come to confuse, and not to explain.” South America often makes me think of it. It is a continent where human intelligence is frequently used to complicate matters, and not to simplify. And unlike Chacrinha’s programme, the results are not hilarious, just frustrating.

Chacrinha’s Law (my name for the process where supposedly clever people defend absurd positions) is alive and well in Uruguay.

For the past two weekends the Uruguayan first division has been suspended. This follows a battle which took place on the pitch between fans of Danubio and Nacional after their game had finished.

Football violence is a problem all over South America. Just in the last few days there have been more deaths in Argentina, riots in Bolivia, crowd problems in Ecuador as well as the fighting in Uruguay.

Part of the problem is a lack of money. Funds are not available for improving stadium and transport infra-structure.

But there is also an issue over the will to tackle the problem. In many cases it seems that the organised groups of thugs have ties to club administrations - they receive free tickets, the players are expected to help with their travel costs, and so on.

After the suspension in Uruguay was announced, Gus Poyet gave an interview to the local press which made clear his frustration with the state of affairs in the land of his birth. He had taken home all the documents he could find about the English experience in countering football violence - and no one was interested.

“I took everything about the hooligans,” he said. “England was an example in controlling the worst of football. But in Uruguay it seems that it can’t be done, because the prisons are full or because someone is receiving protection.”

In this case, happily, the two clubs concerned appear to be putting on a common front. Danubio and Nacional are condemning the violence, rather than protecting their own supporters. And with the local FA talking to the political authorities about the security question, a restart is looking more likely.

But another obstacle has arisen to the successful completion of the championship, which has four rounds to go.

At the end of August, with the season in its early stages, Nacional were set to play Villa Espanola. The Nacional players took the field a minute after the scheduled kick off time - to find that the referee had already abandoned the game on the grounds that they were absent.

There was nothing particularly unusual about Nacional’s tardiness. Timekeeping in South America can be lax - matches get underway a few minutes late, and half times can stretch on for much longer than the usual 15 minutes. There are 17 laws of football, but in this case the referee had clearly forgotten the law of common sense.

The game was awarded 2-0 to Villa Espanola, but Nacional appealed, and last week, by a 3-2 margin, the Uruguayan FA’s justice council ordered the game to be replayed.
Villa Espanola will go along with the judgement, but it has proved too much for Penarol, Nacional’s great rivals, to stomach. In protest at the decision, Penarol called on the executive council of the Uruguayan FA to resign en masse, and went as far as to threaten to disaffiliate from the FA.

Even at a delicate moment such as the present one, with football suspended as a result of security concerns, the idea of the common good seems to have gone out of the window. And meanwhile, Uruguayan football gets left further behind.

Uruguayan clubs were once among the strongest in the Copa Libertadores, South America’s Champions League. But the last time they won the cup was 1988 - not since the following year has a club from Uruguay even reached the semi finals.

Such a decline should be concentrating minds - instead heads seem full with petty quarrels. It is Chacrinha’s Law in action. Perhaps in future disputes, those wanting to confuse rather than explain should be ordered to wear Chacrinha costumes, with massive hats, gaudy suits and a horn, and throw cod into the auditorium as they make their case.

Comments on this piece in the space provided. Other questions on South American football to vickerycolumn@hotmail.com, and I’ll pick out a couple for next week.
From last week’s postbag;

Q. Just got my hands on the newest edition of the Football Manager game series and they rate a number of young Brazilian players very highly (with better attributes than most Premier League players!) such as Wagner and Guilheme of Cruzeiro, Alan Kardec and Alex Teixeira from Vasco and Lulinha from Corinthians etc.
Kris Murphy

A. It’s always going to be a tough and arbitrary job giving ratings to players - especially those in development, but there are times when you wonder… Alan Kardec of Vasco - tall striker, but nothing special yet, and maybe never. His clubmate Alex Teixeira is more interesting, but still in the ‘promise’ class. The Cruzeiro pair are realities - Guilherme looks a terrific player, lots of quality, exceptional vision. His space is going to be squeezed when he moves to Europe, will be interesting to see how he copes.

Wagner has a nice left foot, good player but hasn’t yet fulfilled the hopes I had for him. Unlike the others you mention, he’s not a kid - 24 in January. He was in Dunga’s first Brazil squad over two years ago but hasn’t really come on - made a strange move to Arab football for a while.

Lulinha is another case of being hyped too much too soon. He had a fantastic time last year in the South American Under-17 Championships. Everything he hit flew in. Then he was linked with Chelsea and pitched into Corinthians’ unsuccessful battle against relegation, and it was all too early. He hasn’t had a great year even though the team comfortably won promotion, and he hasn’t been included in Brazil’s Under-20 squad for the South American Championships. Next year is a big one.