The Fall of the Seleção.
From the videoWhat’s Wrong With Brazil’s National Soccer Team — Part 1
Why has the most successful national team in World Cup history looked so ordinary for a decade? In Part 1 of this series, Coach Roberto Avey — who grew up playing in Campinas, Brazil — breaks down clips from Brazilian journalists, pundits and ex-players to examine what’s really happening inside the Seleção and the CBF. It ends with a surprise: a very famous World Cup winner’s campaign to fix it all.
- The decline is real but not unprecedented — even the 2002 champions and the 1994 team struggled through qualifying (Romário rescued the ’94 side in the final qualifier).
- The problems start at the top — CBF power plays, back-room deals to hold power until 2034, ticket prices near half a month’s minimum wage, empty stadiums.
- The league works against the national team — Brazil semi-ignores FIFA dates, shoving weekend fixtures into midweek and overloading players.
- The Ancelotti handshake saga — no contract, a year and a half of interim managers, then nothing.
- The hope: R9 — Ronaldo’s run for CBF president, and why a football man beats a career bureaucrat.
A decade of decline
The video opens with the question every Brazilian fan keeps asking: why has the Seleção been so poor for roughly ten years? The first clips break down the final 2024 World Cup qualifier of the year against Uruguay — a flat 1–1 draw that was hard to watch, let alone cheer. The pundits add historical perspective: Brazil has had rough qualifying campaigns before, including the 2002 team that went on to win it all, and the 1994 side that needed two Romário goals in the final qualifier just to reach the World Cup.
The federation problem
From there, the analysis turns to the CBF. There’s little direction, little hope, and no cohesion around the team — and at the top sits a president more focused on power plays than football. Ticket prices for national team games were raised to roughly R$600 — nearly half a month’s minimum wage in Brazil — at year-end, and the stadium sat empty. As Roberto puts it: you’re not watching a Ronaldinho or a Neymar out there, so why would fans pay that to watch mediocrity?
Why elite managers won’t come
Could a Guardiola or an Ancelotti fix the Seleção? Any foreign manager will do due diligence — and they’ll find a federation president cutting deals to stay in power until 2034, a domestic league that only pretends to respect FIFA dates (weekend games pushed to midweek, overloading players and sabotaging call-ups), and Copa América logistics so bad the team was stranded in the United States without flights home. The Ancelotti chapter says it all: a handshake agreement with no contract, a year and a half of interim managers — Ramon Menezes, Fernando Diniz — and then Ancelotti walked away.
The big reveal: R9 for CBF president
The video closes with Ronaldo — R9, the original — announcing his campaign for CBF president. His mission: rescue Brazilian football, restore the confidence and respect Brazil once commanded worldwide, and elevate the leagues, players and managers globally. Roberto’s case for him: playing experience at the highest level, real business experience, and worldly wisdom — versus a lifelong desk bureaucrat. As in the corporate world, when leaders who never worked the floor take over, the business suffers.
Full Video Transcript (condensed)
So what’s going on with the Brazilian national football team? Why have they been so poor the last several years — I would say the last 10 years, to be exact? I get this question a lot, from friends I play with, from kids I coach and train, and it’s hard to understand why there’s been such a drastic decline. Today I’m going to put together a few clips from Brazil — from journalists, pundits, as well as ex-players. We’ll analyze them, and at the end I have a special surprise about an older World Cup-winning player, a very famous guy. This is going to be a series — we have a lot to talk about.
The Uruguay game
They’re discussing the final game of 2024 against Uruguay in Brazil for World Cup qualifying. It was a 1–1 tie — a pretty slouchy game, hard to watch, hard to stand up and cheer. There have been other difficult campaigns: even the 2002 World Cup-winning team hardly qualified, and in 1994 Brazil had a lot of problems qualifying as well — Romário had to come in and score two goals in the final qualifying game to advance them to the World Cup.
The Seleção’s direction
There’s very little direction and very little hope. The cohesiveness is not there whatsoever. All of that is hurting the play — as well as the CBF president, who has this kind of inferiority complex where he tries to show he’s the most powerful, the man in charge, doing all these political things. We have really good players, but they’re not the lead player on their teams in Europe. There’s Vini Jr — he shares that responsibility with other players at Real Madrid — but he doesn’t play very well for the Seleção. Maybe it’s not fair to expect him to play like a Neymar, a Ronaldinho, or an R9 — but it is proper to have those expectations. If he wants the Ballon d’Or, he needs to play better for the Brazilian national team.
The empty stadium
The stadium was empty and it was extremely expensive — one of those power plays by the CBF president. He raised the prices and people don’t go. Why would they? You’re not watching a Ronaldinho, you’re not watching a Neymar — you’re watching a team playing mediocre football. Tickets went up to around R$600 at the end of the year — when the minimum wage is about R$1,400 in Brazil, that’s nearly half a month’s salary just to watch the Seleção.
Hiring a foreign manager
They discuss bringing in a manager from overseas — a Pep Guardiola, a Carlo Ancelotti. But say we invite a foreign manager: they’re going to do their research, talk to friends and past Brazilian players they’ve managed. They’ll see the current CBF president doing power plays and back-room deals to stay in power for another 10 years, until 2034. Then they’ll hear the Brazilian league doesn’t respect the FIFA dates — during international windows, leagues in England, Spain, Italy and the USA stop for about 10 days; in Brazil they semi-stop, pushing weekend games to midweek. If you’re the national team coach and want to call up a player from the Brazilian league, it becomes very difficult — the player is overloaded. Then, logistically: during Copa América, Brazil didn’t have flights home and had to stay an extra day in the United States because someone mismanaged the travel. Five-time world champions — and it’s that unorganized. It’s hard to bring in a Guardiola or an Ancelotti and expect them to want to join complete disorder.
The Ancelotti saga
The CBF president did a handshake deal with Carlo Ancelotti, the Real Madrid manager, to take over the Seleção. For a year and a half we had interim managers — Ramon Menezes, Fernando Diniz — and it was poorly managed. Nothing was written on paper, there were no contracts. After a year and some months, Ancelotti said: I don’t want to be part of this.
The reveal — R9
Who’s going to be the next CBF president? R9. Ronaldo — the original, the real one. The gods of football blessed Ronaldo with speed, ability, agility, force, and wisdom in the sport. Why does he want to become president of the Brazilian Federation? He said it clearly: he wants to rescue football in Brazil, bring back the confidence and respect Brazil had throughout the world, and elevate the leagues, the players and the managers globally. I feel he has the capacity to do it. He has the playing experience, he’s been in business for a while, he’s not a lifelong bureaucrat or politician. Being a leader takes sternness, confidence, and most of all critical thinking. We’ve all been in situations with that sort of character — a lifelong person behind the desk who never applied anything, suddenly becomes a leader, and two or three years later there are layoffs everywhere. It’s time to get someone who actually worked in the industry from the ground up.
I’m happy R9 is doing this — I think he has the capacity. I’d love to hear what you have to say: put comments below in English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian — whatever you feel. Like and subscribe: I’m going to do several more of these videos about the CBF, the Seleção, Vini Jr and other players. Talk to you soon — tá bom?
Transcript lightly edited from YouTube captions for readability; Brazilian names and terms corrected.
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