Brazil players drunk at World Cup - report

[Lazie]

Brazil players drunk at World Cup - report

First Published: Aug 01, 2007
Gilberto(L) and Thierry Henry in the 2006 World Cup quarter-finals. Brazilian soccer federation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira told a Brazilian newspaper that Brazil players had all night drinking sessions at the 2006 World Cup finals and Ronaldo was vastly overweight.

Brazil players had all night drinking sessions at the 2006 World Cup finals and Ronaldo was vastly overweight, Brazilian federation (CBF) president Ricardo Teixeira was quoted as saying by a local newspaper.
The Estado de Sao Paulo daily reported extracts from a conversation in Zurich between Teixeira and a representative of the company which is promoting Brazil's bid to host the 2014 World Cup finals for which they are the sole candidates.
Brazil were favourites to win the 2006 edition but lost 1-0 to France in the quarter-finals.
Teixeira criticised AC Milan striker Ronaldo, who weighed 98kg at the start of the competition.
"How can an athlete weigh 98kg during a major finals," Texeira said. "I am not a sportsman and I don't weigh as much as that.
"Certain (unnamed) players returned to their hotel drunk between 4:00am and 6:00am. How could no one have seen that."
The head of the Brazilian delegation in Germany last year, Marco Paulo del Nero, replied, in comments published by O Estado de Sao Paulo, that he had not seen such scenes.
"I didn't see anything and, if such incidents happened, the technical staff did a very good job of covering them up."

[Bricktop]

Is this the latest excuse?

[Mosiah]

Excuses. If Brazil loses then the players must be drunk.

sigh

[Zeppo]

I think that Roberto Carlos was actually drunk during the France game.

[Jawge]

Then dat nuh mek sense
to yuh?

[Time]

Were they out partying with Marlon King?

[Karl]

Goal.com - EDITORIAL: Brazilian Booze and World Cup Woes

Brazilian Booze And World Cup Woes CBF President Ricardo Teixeira has lashed out against players who went on the lash in Germany as one of the causes of Brazil’s World Cup woes in Germany. In a series of polemical declarations made to a São Paulo broadsheet, the exec slammed the behaviour of the Seleção last summer.

Although he didn’t name any particular player as a booze hound, Teixeira did slam Ronaldo for his weight problems in a sideswipe at the Fenômeno who he hinted was part of the Seleção past. Has Teixeira hit the nail on the head...or merely shot himself in the foot?



Teixeira

Brazil is dependent on alcohol. It’s a fact. You can see it on virtually every corner; you can breathe it in the air of every street. The country is alcohol-fuelled to a large extent and Brazil wouldn't be the same on many levels without alcohol. This admittedly does refer to the procedure of using sugar cane waste to produce an alternative to gasoline...but also the fact that you can pick up a litre of pinga (a.k.a cachaça; Brazilian rum) for little more than double the price of the stuff you pump into your tank.


Although not widely admitted, many drivers also take to the wheel with a belly-full of birita all over the nation, hardly deterred by the almost-non-existent breath tests and general leniency shown to all but the most paralytic driver.

TV is also swollen with gallons of beer ads, mainly sold by shapely buttocks (female, natch, and fortunately not of models who swill down the suds) undulating on screen in a fio dental (dental floss – the nickname for the skimpy Brazilian tangas).

The link with football is also patent – as in many other countries – with well-known breweries hogging the airtime before kick-offs and players gulping down large amounts of money from appearing with toothy grins and the beer brand stamped on their shirt. Even if booze is banned in São Paulo stadiums you can drink your fill on the doorstep from any number of vendors. It’s endemic, sure, but surely not in the Seleção...?

Zurich was the scene for a supposed samba to set the scene for 2014 joy as Brazilian football organisation the CBF (Confederação de Futbol Brasileiro – Brazilian Football Confederation) laid out plans to host the World Cup after South Africa takes its turn in 2010. Nevertheless the cat was soon set among the pigeons as CBF President Ricardo Teixeira (pictured) couldn’t resist the temptation to scratch at scabs.

Strange...as he was - and is - the man in charge. So why doesn't the buck stop there?
Displacement. The controversial exec is still fuming over the 2006 World Cup fiasco that saw Brazil make waves only with a very public belly flop in Germany. In an interview with respected Brazilian broadsheet Estado de São Paulo (The State of São Paulo), Teixeira railed against a complete lack of self-control in the Canarinha camp, citing boozing as one of the reasons that led to an embarrassing campaign.

"There were players who arrived back at camp between 4 and 6 in the morning, drunk", Teixeira reportedly revealed to Rui Rodrigues, the MPM advertising agency rep who’s helming Brazil’s embryonic 2014 bid. “It’s obvious that things weren’t going to work like that. How was it that nobody was aware of that?” he added with a rhetorical slap at the coaching team led by Perreira and Zagallo.

Although he was evidently overheated, Teixeira avoided naming names of those that he claimed had returned back doing an alcohol-fuelled zigzag. The only name that he did mention was that of AC Milan striker – then at Real Madrid – Ronaldo. This wasn’t specifically in regard to alcohol consumption, but the exec’s sudden swerve towards the Fenômeno’s well-known weight issues could be linked.

"How could a player turn up to a World Cup weighing 98kg? I almost weigh that and I’m not an athlete”, snapped the suit with the double-chin. “How old is Ronaldo these days? How old will he be in 2010? We need to find another Ronaldo." Teixeira went on to praise phenomenally successful Brazilian volleyball Coach Bernardinho, who cut a player before the Pan-American games, as a man with guts – and control.

It’s still early days to see who will react and in which ways, but two denials have already been made that boozing wrecked the 2006 campaign. Marco Polo Del Nero, who headed the Brazilian delegation in Germany – and is also, ironically, the head of the FPF (Federação Paulista de Futebol - São Paulo Football Federation) that banned beer in stadiums...but turns a blind eye to it being sold freely outside – denied seeing anything amiss in the Brazilian camp in Germany according to Gazeta Esportiva.

Mario Jorge Lobo (The Wolf) Zagallo went further than just a cursory denial of seeing no evil. “There wasn’t any of that. This all comes as a big surprise to me”, he told the Agência O Globo by phone. “I can hardly believe that the President [of the CBF] said that. And why say that now, so long after the Cup?...There were loads of journalists there [in Germany] the whole time. You think they’d know about it, wouldn’t you?” the man who coached the 1970 team to World Cup glory asked.

In fact there were several stories at the time claiming that players such as Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo had been spotted drinking in discos as the Seleção was preparing for the World Cup. This did cause a certain friction between the aforementioned players and the Brazilian press – the stars claiming that they were being hounded – but Zagallo denied everything. “In the camp we knew nothing of this because there was nothing. There was no drunkenness...we lost the Cup because we didn’t play well”, he guaranteed.

O Estado tried to elicit more responses from those who were in the best position to see something, getting in contact with the agents of Cafú, Roberto Carlos, Zé Roberto, Juninho Pernambucano, Kaká and Ronaldo, but the paper noted that “they preferred not to talk about the issue. The same happened with Carlos Alberto Parreira [even though] the Coach was indirectly criticised by Teixeira for allowing some to go too far.”

“Through a press secretary Ronaldo affirmed that his aim was to return to the Seleção only in the mid or long-term and 'play a great season for [AC] Milan'”, the paper added regarding the only player named explicitly by Teixeira – and a regular advertising mainstay of a certain leading Brazilian beer brand. O Estado still persisted that the claims had more than a grain of truth to them.

“Sources linked to the group [of players] that were present in Germany guarantee that Teixeira’s comments are correct. These sources, that asked for anonymity, said that there were excesses in Kõnigstein, first base for the squad. On their days off groups of players headed for discos and dance clubs and came back to the hotel either very late at night or in the early morning.”

The article insisted on the abuse of alcohol among the players – and also that ‘carry outs’ from the night haunts were permitted, although not in the alcoholic sense. “Some appeared to be drunk. There was even a room reserved so that some players could take women back.'” Strong accusations, although still to be backed up by either solid proof or explicit names, but where there’s smoke...

It’s true that there were other signs that things weren’t going well, Juninho Pernambucano hitting out at the fact that he was deeply disappointed that certain – again, unnamed – players didn’t take the Cup seriously as he announced that he’d be retiring from national service. Kaká was also reportedly upset by the behaviour of some of his team-mates, although he kept submarine silence in public. Many pundits see the choice of a stern no-nonsense (albeit inexperienced) Dunga as a direct response.

“Discipline is needed and that’s part of Dunga’s role”, Teixeira stressed to Lancenet. Since assuming command Dunga has conspicuously left Ronaldo out – as he has also done with Internazionale number 10 Adriano. In July the player, who’s been snapped several times with a beer, cigarette and differently-attractive woman in hand, admitted to Italian sports paper Gazzetta Dello Sport that he’s been overdoing the sauce over the past two years...a period that would also, theoretically, include the 2006 World Cup.

While we wait for the issue to either blow over or blow up, there is food for thought. Should players be expected to adhere to a Spartan lifestyle while ‘on duty’ – both at club and country levels – or should they be allowed to act freely? In the wake of FC Barcelona enacting a code that expressly prohibits players from raving it up at night, should other clubs – and countries – follow suit? Can we really expect young men to rein it their desire to live it up for the sake of fans who are free to do as they please?

Should their mentors and agents instil a sense of duty and responsibility as being part and parcel of fame and fortune? Is it right to make them accountable up to the point of inflicting punishment – or are we right to be ‘cruel to be kind’? All of these are legitimate questions that can be pondered around a table...even with a beer in hand...but should it be alcohol-free? If abstinence equals a World Cup conquest in South Africa and a hypothetical Brazil 2014, few Seleção fans would disagree. Saúde! (Cheers/Health)