Brazil faces Ghana in a friendly match, this Friday evening in Le Havre, before meeting Tunisia next Tuesday at the Parc des Princes.
For years, the Seleçao has multiplied meetings in the four corners of the planet as part of the “Brazil Global Tour”, a marketing package whose management the Federation has entrusted to the company Pitch International.
The tours of Brazil cannot however be reduced to a great traveling circus, as one might sometimes imagine, where the technical staff and the players would submit to the law of a greedy marketing agency.
The question makes Clément Calvez, the development director of the Le Havre club, smile.
At the same time, it must be the thousandth time that it has been asked since the announcement of the arrival of Brazil, this Friday, for a friendly match against Ghana at the Océane stadium.
“It's funny, everyone seems very surprised that Le Havre can welcome Brazil,” he points out as we try to find out how the affair ended.
We have to admit, we would not have naturally associated the port city of Normandy with samba, even since Adriano's false arrival.
But this is not quite the object of our approach.
It is rather a question of understanding the way in which the “Brazil Global Tour” works, a true trademark of the organization of friendly matches of the Seleçao all over the world.
60 friendlies on six continents since 2012
Its origin is not a mystery.
In 2012, the Brazilian Federation (CBF) entrusted the management of all unofficial matches to the company Pitch International, until the end of this year 2022. Nothing extraordinary in that, national selections like clubs are numerous to use this type of service.
But the London-based marketing agency pushed the concept hard anyway, taking control of all the extras, including commercial, broadcast and sponsorship rights.
A nice touch, when we talk about the most famous and most successful football team in the world.
Since signing the contract, Brazil have played 60 friendlies, on all continents.
Neymar and his band have thus performed in Austria, Turkey, the United States, Australia, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, England, South Korea, Singapore... and from time to time, when even in Brazil.
All skillfully orchestrated, financed by major brands such as Gillette then Chevrolet, and documented on social networks thanks to a dedicated Instagram account.
Each match would bring in an average of around 3 million dollars (2.70 million euros) gross to the CBF and its partner agency, according to an expert estimate relayed by
L'Equipe .
in 2019. Figure not confirmed by Pitch International, which did not respond to our requests.
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Of course, the fact of playing more often in Europe than anywhere else corresponds to a certain logic.
The vast majority of Brazilian internationals evolve on the Old Continent, and therefore save themselves long round trips to South America.
In the country, this state of affairs ended up tiring the supporters.
“People here started to say, as a joke, that the Emirates Stadium (the Arsenal stadium) was the new Maracana, tells us the Brazilian journalist Luis Augusto Monaco.
At first the fans were a little angry, but today they got used to it.
In fact, people no longer have a great passion for their national team.
»
If the Brazilians always follow the big competitions, Copa America and World Cup, it's been a while since they stopped being interested in friendly matches.
“The TV audiences are far below what they were, continues our Brazilian colleague, based in Sao Paulo.
The matches are in the morning or in the afternoon, people are not at home.
It bothers them, even when a player from their team is selected, because the championship does not stop at Fifa dates and you have to play matches without the best players.
Until the 90s, having a player in the national team was a source of pride.
Today, it is more disturbing than anything else.
»
The business in retreat
However, the tours of Brazil cannot be reduced to a great traveling circus, as one might sometimes imagine, where the staff would have no say in the commercial inclinations of a greedy marketing agency.
The arrival of the Seleçao in Le Havre is an example of this.
Brazil were originally scheduled to face Argentina on Thursday in a replay of World Cup qualifying.
The two nations already having their ticket, they agreed with Fifa on an outright cancellation, formalized on August 16th.
A date was therefore freed up and an opponent and a stadium had to be urgently found, not too far from Paris, where a friendly match against Tunisia was already set for the following Tuesday.
Pitch International, guided by the French agency Evolv Sports, has set its sights on the Océane stadium.
Le Havre was not the only option.
If the priority was business, they would have chosen another opponent, with a larger community in France, and a bigger stadium.
Do not believe, the coach has more power than anyone in the Federation to impose his choices.
»
Confirmation with the Hac.
“A Brazilian delegation, with the coach and the general manager, came to visit our facilities, our training center, our stadium.
The next day, things were validated, explains Clément Calvez.
What made the decision was really the quality of the buildings and land.
Two months before the World Cup in Qatar, this internship is of crucial importance for Tite in order to fine-tune the final adjustments.
The priority was to work in good conditions, with a club that agrees to rent the locker rooms and work rooms of its first team.
Not such an easy task, although when you call yourself Brazil, the doors always open a little more easily.
Another good point raised by the leader of Le Havre, the listening shown by the Federation and its agency concerning the price of places.
According to the deal concluded, they pay the Hac a sum ("which will not upset the economy of the club", he specifies without giving more details) for their services, and are remunerated with the receipts of the ticket office.
However, they did not arrive with their big clogs by imposing places at 100 euros minimum in mode “you are nice but we are Brazil and we bring a little joy to the lower Norman people”.
Le Hac advised a range ranging from 15 to 45 euros, and was followed, without discussion.
Neymar and Marquinhos, the last Brazilians to join Le Havre on Monday.
First Seleçaõ training this afternoon at the center of @HAC_Foot #brasil #foot #lehavre @RTLFrance #neymar #marquinhos #psg pic.twitter.com/KqLy114CTk
– Frederic Eve (@fredveille) September 19, 2022
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“These are very reasonable prices.
Their goal was really for everything to go well, for everyone to be happy, for them to cover their own expenses as well, of course, but for the stadium to be full and for it to be a great party, assures Clément Calvez.
It is an important subject for them.
Of course, the tickets went out in a few hours.
The 25,000 seats at the Océane stadium, like the 48,000 at the Parc des Princes, will be filled.
The CBF and Pitch International thus try to combine the best commercial interests and sporting imperatives.
“They arbitrate, depending on the time of the season and the competitions to be prepared for,” explains Pierre Inquel, who has dealt with the Brazilians more than once.
In summary, green light for tours in the Middle East or Asia in a slow period to fill the coffers, but no more laughing the year before a World Cup (except in 2013, when they had only that to do because exempted qualifications as host country).
Adversity problem?
The British agency would therefore have contributed to restoring order to the Harlem Globetrotters, after the inglorious era of ISE, a shell company based in the Cayman Islands with which the former big boss of the CBF, Ricardo Teixeira, had done business.
An investigation published in 2015 by the newspaper
O Estadao
had revealed the signing of a secret agreement giving the hand to the sponsors on the list of players called up for selection.
Teixeira, caught in various corruption scandals, had to leave his post at the beginning of 2012, after 22 years of reign.
Coach at the time of the signing of the new partnership, Luiz Felipe Scolari had insisted that the staff retain a certain weight in decision-making, just to ensure a coherent calendar and quality adversity, as explained in a
Telegraph
paper dating from 2013. If the first point seems acquired, the second is more complicated to satisfy, especially since UEFA launched its Nations League.
“As the European teams are taken on each date, Brazil finds itself with few opportunities for very high level matches, notes Carlos Mansur, a colleague from the sports daily
O Globo
.
There is a lack of variety in the preparation matches, and this greatly worries the technical staff of the Seleçao.
Who will certainly have noticed that since the last world title in 2002, Brazil has always been eliminated by a European team.
If the scenario repeats itself in Qatar, Pitch International will certainly have to make sure that changes to hope to make the brand last.
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