Socrates, who said he would enlist former players such as Zico, Tostao and his younger brother Rai, said he would introduce a new philosophy in his attempt to pull Brazilian football out of its crisis. The dictatorship has ended but the system has not changed. I want to put Brazilian football under discussion. The people in charge of sport today are more interested in their personal targets than with the essence of sport. All we will have left will be the skeletons of the stadiums.
Brazilian football is in enormous difficulties.
Two Congressional commissions are investigating alleged mismanagement and corruption in the sport while the national team is in danger of missing a World Cup for the first time. His replacement will be elected by the head of Brazil's 27 state federations plus its 24 biggest clubs. In the old days, a World Cup qualifier was the same as a national holiday. The standard of players has got worse because the talents aren't appearing the way they were 40 years ago and because we are not interested any more in preparing people to work with the kids. To be a player today the boy has firstly to be stupid and then become incompetent.