Not two months have passed since the last round of the 2025 Brazilian Championship and the 2026 one is already starting. Our championship is good, but with a lot of room for improvement. Something that essentially depends on understanding the concept: entertainment.
A tournament where the only relatively easy prediction is who will fight for the title. Flamengo and Palmeiras, economic and sporting powers, each in their own way, must be at the top again. The Brasileirão allows an unsuspecting person to say: “did you see Vasco’s game? 6-0!” and the other asks: “for whom?”.
São Paulo in crisis finished 8th, Corinthians had the best year among São Paulo and was 13th, Santos fought to not fall until the last round and was 12th. In the last round, at some point, Inter was saved by having more goals scored than Fortaleza.
Competitiveness, balance and randomness set a special tone, different from predictable national championships around the world, where each club knows exactly its “social role” within the tournament. In Spain, fans of Betis, Celta or Rayo Vallecano know exactly what to expect from their team.
No Eintracht Frankfurt fanatic will revolt if the team goes decades without a title, just as Olympique de Marseille fanatics know that PSG is already the French champion — and at most could lose the title.
What Brasileirão needs to improve is the concept of entertainment. Compared to the main leagues in Europe (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, France), the average number of fouls is the highest, with 27 infractions per match. The time the ball is rolling is the lowest, with 53% of the game running. In Brazil, 2.52 goals are scored per game, an average that is also lower than that of other leagues.
In addition to these numbers, to improve the game it is necessary to improve the education of those who are part of it. Goalkeepers who, to cool down the opponent, pretend to be injured in the 7th minute of the first half when the team is under pressure. Players who jump at the slightest contact, preferring a little foul due to the cold law of the game than trying a dangerous play. Here we believe more in legislation than in football.
The feeling I have is that no one wants to help the game be better. Everyone wants to push as hard as they can to have small advantages. They make traps on the field and off it, look for shortcuts, create an always hostile environment, which makes football less beautiful, fun and entertaining, turning any throw-in into a war.
Maybe that’s why you’re more likely to want to watch a random game from an international tournament than a Brasileirão game that your team isn’t in. It’s almost impossible to have fun with football in Brazil.
It’s one thing to fall in love and viscerally root for your team, no matter how bad and clumsy it may be, but there’s no entertainment in watching the best teams in the country play — because it’s likely that they’re also looking for their fouls, cooling down the rival’s pressure or shouting in the referee’s face that they didn’t award a corner.
We have football, we organize ourselves and dominate South America, we show that we can face good European teams. We need a better championship, we need better games to watch. But this will only be possible if the artists in this show are willing to help. More sport, less guerrilla tactics and, from then on, whoever plays best wins.
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