Brazilian footballers

[kleph]

Since the early 1990s, the number of players leaving Brazil to play for clubs abroad each year has risen from 130 to 850, making Brazil the world's biggest exporter of footballers.

Brazilian clubs find it hard to pay top wages and players struggle to attract commercial endorsements. Not since Pelé's Santos in the 1960s has a Brazilian club achieved international fame. Even in the 1980s, heroes such as Zico and Socrates went abroad only after long campaigns for local clubs.

In addition, Brazilian players cost European clubs less than local footballers of equivalent talent.

The trend is having it's toll in Brazil where, last year, an average match in the national championship attracted fewer than 8,000 supporters compared with 35,000 in Britain's Premier League.

The Economist (http://www.economist.com/World/la/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3577950)

[gray]

Nothing surprising really, considering the scouting process in Brazil probably involves walking around the block and seeing which 9 year-old is the best at dribbling past his 12 mates and scoring goals for fun.

[s3raph]

Damn I was hoping this was some kind of shaven female soccer player pr0n.

[Icky_Thoomp]

Uh oh.... I think I am about to get on my high horse....

The system of football transfer fees and the way that some players get rorted is abysmal. The transfer system, as I understand it, basically means that anyone who has had a contract with a player gets a cut of any future transfer fee that that player may be paid in the future. So the young Brazilian kid may go from the local team to a 2nd or 3rd tier European club, score bags of goals and get transferred to Real Madrid for massive money. The thing is that he has to then give each former employer their cut as well as his agent/manager. Poor Brazilian kid basically gets fuck-all of the massive transfer fee.

Even when a contract runs out, the club still has power over the player in that they must sign releases to let the player go to another club. My view is that this is a restraint of trade and needs to be fucked off right away.

While I feel sorry for the quality of Brazilian soccer, you also have to justify that a country that cannot feed its people and that is in such a financial mess as Brazil is has no right to be paying soccer players huge fortunes. I think it might be the communist in my coming to the surface but you gotta have food and shelter for the population before you worry about paying exorbitant amounts to football players.

The bargaining power of the big clubs in Europe is also a factor in the way that Brazilian players and indeed players from all non-European countries get paid less than equivalently skilled locals. Work visas, accomodation, time away from the club to represent your country are all factored into how much to pay a foreign player.

Kleph, you would probably find that African players get an even worse deal than the South Americans (I remember reading that a lot of Argentinians also went to play abroad after their economy collapsed a while back).

Ok, dismounting the high horse.....

[SuCC]

/sucks to be you (brazillians)

[kleph]

rep for a great post icky. but one thing, brazil's economy is doing rather well of late as you can see here (http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=aKP8WoXpBMDg&refer=news_index) and here (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7545585) it is just due to the variance in the economies a player can make so much more in europe.

[SuCC]

bludgeon and freeze....bludgeon and freeze......bludgeon and freeze......bludgeon and freeze......bludgeon and freeze......poor Amazon Forest :(

[gray]

The system of football transfer fees and the way that some players get rorted is abysmal. The transfer system, as I understand it, basically means that anyone who has had a contract with a player gets a cut of any future transfer fee that that player may be paid in the future. So the young Brazilian kid may go from the local team to a 2nd or 3rd tier European club, score bags of goals and get transferred to Real Madrid for massive money. The thing is that he has to then give each former employer their cut as well as his agent/manager. Poor Brazilian kid basically gets fuck-all of the massive transfer fee.
AFAIK it doesn't work like that. Only when such an agreement is written into a player's contract does a club have to pay a certain amount of their next transfer fee (depending on appearances, goals scored, whatever..).

I highly doubt that every single footballer in the world would be tied down to every single club they've ever played for.

Even when a contract runs out, the club still has power over the player in that they must sign releases to let the player go to another club. My view is that this is a restraint of trade and needs to be fucked off right away.
Again I don't think this is the case. Once a player's contract expires, he becomes a free agent and his club has no power to decide whether he can play for another club or not.

[FireHart]

Damn I was hoping this was some kind of shaven female soccer player pr0n.
That makes two of us.

[berserk]

Again I don't think this is the case. Once a player's contract expires, he becomes a free agent and his club has no power to decide whether he can play for another club or not.

I believe this only applies to contracts with clubs under UEFA (maybe) or EU (definitely). The FC can still screw the players over in the rest of the world.

That Economist figure of 8000 avg attendance for the Campeonato Brasileiro vs 35000 in the EPL proves nothing & means less. It would only mean something if attendences were declining due to some perceived decline in standards. Apparently attendences in most European national leagues including the EPL have started to decline as well. Apparently its due to higher ticket prices, "large teams" (e.g. Leeds) getting relegated & too many live matches on TV, or some combination thereof.

There are many possible reasons for mass exodus of Brasilian (& Argie) players to all corners of the globe besides South American economic woes.
For instance
1. the emergence of professional leagues in places like Asia where none previously existed or
2. relaxed nationality rules in European football that allows a club to sign-up & play large numbers of non-nationals at any one time where previously teams were limited to 3 foreigners per match day squad. To wit, the large number of Argentinians with Italian/Spanish dual nationality in European leagues.

[Androssi]

That makes two of us.

Thirded

[MisterBishi]

The system of football transfer fees and the way that some players get rorted is abysmal. The transfer system, as I understand it, basically means that anyone who has had a contract with a player gets a cut of any future transfer fee that that player may be paid in the future. So the young Brazilian kid may go from the local team to a 2nd or 3rd tier European club, score bags of goals and get transferred to Real Madrid for massive money. The thing is that he has to then give each former employer their cut as well as his agent/manager. Poor Brazilian kid basically gets fuck-all of the massive transfer fee.


That's not how it works. The transfer fee is paid to the club who currently holds the registration for the player. If this transfer fee is considered acceptable by the selling club, the player is free to discuss a contract with the buying club, usually including a signing on fee like a 'golden hello'.

All of the transfer fee is then payable to the selling club and the registration for the player is transferred to the buying club.

If the selling club insists on a sell-on clause as part of the deal, then the buying club agree to pay a percentage of any future transfer fee recieved to the selling club. The player doesn't have to give them a thing.

[Icky_Thoomp]

Well, I was basing my post on an article I read in Playboy in 1990 (I think it was the Erika Eleniak edition). Thanks for setting the record straight, Bishi, berserk and gray.

I still think that the transfer system is grossly unfair and should be gotten rid of right away.

Bishi, you would have to agree that the clubs have way too much power in the relationship. Selling clubs demanding all sorts of things like sell-on clauses can mean that a player becomes a bad deal and therefore goes nowhere. That's not fair....