review of literature: Soccer's impact in the brazilian society
This is a review of literature that analyzes multiple sources assessing the impact of soccer in the Brazilian society, including several aspects of the country's culture, economics, and politics. Since my project was devoted to certain topics in Brazilian history and current events specifically attached to soccer, I have selected a series of articles that generally explain Brazil's history with the sport, that adequately explain the impacts of soccer in Brazilian politics during its military regime, and that explain the impact of soccer economically and socially in Brazil before and after the World Cup. Continue reading to find overviews of the many articles I analyzed their detailed and accurate portrayal of Brazilian society.
The article "How Football Shaped Brazil" by Conor Heffernan offers a detailed analysis of the history of soccer in Brazil, focusing especially on how soccer became an essential sport in Brazil only after the 1930s, after it had spread from the elites to the masses. This was incredibly important to my research because it provides a basis for how soccer become a popular sport and thus the beginning of its massive impact in Brazil's way of life, especially impacting culture at the time. The article "Brazil" by David Levine and Langley King allowed me to expand the viewers' knowledge on basic facts about Brazilian soccer that will lead to a better understanding of the political, economic, and social impacts it caused and why.
Next, I decided to research one of the most life-changing and chaotic moments of Brazilian history: the period of military rule. The article "Political Football: How Brazil’s Military Hijacked the Beautiful Game" by Jamie Rainbow details the exact involvement soccer had politically in Brazil at the time. Essentially, the government used the prosperity of the team and its influence with the Brazilian people to manipulate the public and gain support for its regime, due to recent protests. After Brazil won the World Cup in 1970, the government, through the media, attempted to mention its economic development plans and their success every time the tournament's outcome was brought up. This article is essential in my research because it proves how deep soccer's effect actually is in the Brazilian way of life (in this case politically), which was one of the main reasons I conducted this study.
The period of military rule offers important evidence of my main point of study, however it occurred over forty years ago. In order to approach my theme with more recent events related to soccer. For this purpose, I chose to analyze the World Cup. Before the World Cup started, thousands of Brazilians took the streets to protest it. Due to the love most Brazilians feel for the sport, it is reasonable to imagine that instead they would be eagerly welcoming the tournament. The Washington Post's "Protesters take to the streets of several Brazilian cities hosting World Cup matches" written by Dom Phillips helps explain the true reasoning behind the revolt: they were not against the tournament itself, but the fact that the government could be spending the money used for the tournament more effectively in developing health and education in the country. The guardian's article "Anti-World Cup protests across Brazil" written by Jonathan Watts further explains the protests, with Brazilians demonstrating they wanted to make it clear to the international community the World Cup did not represent them.
Even so, after the tournament started and the Brazilian's national soccer team started to win, people stopped protesting and started cheering for their team, as explained in the Washington Post's "World Cup 2014: Protests in Brazil fade to background" article written by Dom Phillips. Carla Vilardo, a woman interviewed in this article, even admits "We are Brazilians, and football is the culture of our country", claiming the time to protest should be during the national elections in October, even though previously admitting she was not in favor of the World Cup. It is evident that while a powerful sentiment of anger and dissatisfaction with the government was shared among many citizens, love for the sport and the national team continued to exist and eventually was more important.
Brazil's national team ended up losing a 7-1 loss against the national German team during the semifinals. As reported in the Washington Post's "2014 World Cup: Germany overwhelms shorthanded Brazil in semifinal, 7-1" article written by Steven Goff, people all over Brazil were extremely disappointed and shocked with this unexpected result and the players in the team apologized deeply to all Brazilians. Even so, many in the country were outraged, angry, and ashamed of being Brazilian after the loss. The Washington Post's "Five sad and shocking facts about World Cup corruption in Brazil" article written by Marissa Payne explained how the governmental budgets showed vast amounts of money being spent on projects that cost a lot less, demonstrating just one part of the governmental corruption that took part during the World Cup.
The World Cup demonstrated soccer's association with important economic aspects of Brazil and how it led to increasing governmental corruption. In addition, the loss of the game against Germany and the same many Brazilians felt revealed a lot about the importance attributed to the sport, since many were not concerned with how the 7-1 loss was nothing compared to the amount by which Germany prevails against Brazil when it comes to education, a lack of corruption, safety, health, and even environmental policies and standards. Impacted by the loss, many forgot the shame that led them to initially protest against the government before the World Cup, which, in turn, is exactly the outcome the government was hoping for. The deep connections between soccer, politics, economics, and society can result in complicated outcomes for Brazil that extend well beyond game results, a conclusion the literature chosen supports.
The article "How Football Shaped Brazil" by Conor Heffernan offers a detailed analysis of the history of soccer in Brazil, focusing especially on how soccer became an essential sport in Brazil only after the 1930s, after it had spread from the elites to the masses. This was incredibly important to my research because it provides a basis for how soccer become a popular sport and thus the beginning of its massive impact in Brazil's way of life, especially impacting culture at the time. The article "Brazil" by David Levine and Langley King allowed me to expand the viewers' knowledge on basic facts about Brazilian soccer that will lead to a better understanding of the political, economic, and social impacts it caused and why.
Next, I decided to research one of the most life-changing and chaotic moments of Brazilian history: the period of military rule. The article "Political Football: How Brazil’s Military Hijacked the Beautiful Game" by Jamie Rainbow details the exact involvement soccer had politically in Brazil at the time. Essentially, the government used the prosperity of the team and its influence with the Brazilian people to manipulate the public and gain support for its regime, due to recent protests. After Brazil won the World Cup in 1970, the government, through the media, attempted to mention its economic development plans and their success every time the tournament's outcome was brought up. This article is essential in my research because it proves how deep soccer's effect actually is in the Brazilian way of life (in this case politically), which was one of the main reasons I conducted this study.
The period of military rule offers important evidence of my main point of study, however it occurred over forty years ago. In order to approach my theme with more recent events related to soccer. For this purpose, I chose to analyze the World Cup. Before the World Cup started, thousands of Brazilians took the streets to protest it. Due to the love most Brazilians feel for the sport, it is reasonable to imagine that instead they would be eagerly welcoming the tournament. The Washington Post's "Protesters take to the streets of several Brazilian cities hosting World Cup matches" written by Dom Phillips helps explain the true reasoning behind the revolt: they were not against the tournament itself, but the fact that the government could be spending the money used for the tournament more effectively in developing health and education in the country. The guardian's article "Anti-World Cup protests across Brazil" written by Jonathan Watts further explains the protests, with Brazilians demonstrating they wanted to make it clear to the international community the World Cup did not represent them.
Even so, after the tournament started and the Brazilian's national soccer team started to win, people stopped protesting and started cheering for their team, as explained in the Washington Post's "World Cup 2014: Protests in Brazil fade to background" article written by Dom Phillips. Carla Vilardo, a woman interviewed in this article, even admits "We are Brazilians, and football is the culture of our country", claiming the time to protest should be during the national elections in October, even though previously admitting she was not in favor of the World Cup. It is evident that while a powerful sentiment of anger and dissatisfaction with the government was shared among many citizens, love for the sport and the national team continued to exist and eventually was more important.
Brazil's national team ended up losing a 7-1 loss against the national German team during the semifinals. As reported in the Washington Post's "2014 World Cup: Germany overwhelms shorthanded Brazil in semifinal, 7-1" article written by Steven Goff, people all over Brazil were extremely disappointed and shocked with this unexpected result and the players in the team apologized deeply to all Brazilians. Even so, many in the country were outraged, angry, and ashamed of being Brazilian after the loss. The Washington Post's "Five sad and shocking facts about World Cup corruption in Brazil" article written by Marissa Payne explained how the governmental budgets showed vast amounts of money being spent on projects that cost a lot less, demonstrating just one part of the governmental corruption that took part during the World Cup.
The World Cup demonstrated soccer's association with important economic aspects of Brazil and how it led to increasing governmental corruption. In addition, the loss of the game against Germany and the same many Brazilians felt revealed a lot about the importance attributed to the sport, since many were not concerned with how the 7-1 loss was nothing compared to the amount by which Germany prevails against Brazil when it comes to education, a lack of corruption, safety, health, and even environmental policies and standards. Impacted by the loss, many forgot the shame that led them to initially protest against the government before the World Cup, which, in turn, is exactly the outcome the government was hoping for. The deep connections between soccer, politics, economics, and society can result in complicated outcomes for Brazil that extend well beyond game results, a conclusion the literature chosen supports.