PlanetEye

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Footie Time

Brendan

The Global Nomad

As any Brazilian will tell you, Catholicism is only the country’s second most important religion. Number one? Futebol. And this coming from the largest Catholic population in the world.

There’s no question that when it comes to the world’s most popular sport, it’s hard to beat the Brazilians, on the field or in the stands. So what could be more Brazilian than going to a soccer match? And if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it right: go to Rio’s Maracanã stadium.

When Maracanã was opened in 1950 to host the FIFA world cup, it was by far the largest stadium in the world; attendance at the final match was 200 000, the largest crowd to attend a soccer match in history. Today the place seats a more modest 95 000. To see Brazilians truly in their element, a game should be on any curious visitor’s agenda—football fan or not.

Finding out when games are on isn’t hard—just ask any carioca (Rio resident). If your Portuguese is as bad as mine, you can always check online. Here is one listing, posted by a Brazilian tour guide: http://futebolnomaracana.blogspot.com/

Some tips for taking in a game:

• Buy tickets ahead of time. Things get crazier, more crowded and more drunken the closer the game gets. Save yourself the headache and the long lineups and go earlier in the day or even a day or two before.
• Tickets can be bought at Maracanã itself, but there are other places if that isn’t convenient. If you are going to a local club game, tickets can be bought at the local stadiums of each team. Price is about 10-15 USD.
• Repeat after me: Botafogo. Fluminense. Flamengo. Vasco da Gama.
• Wear the right colours. Better yet, get a jersey from your favourite team. Just be sure to…
• Sit in the right place. Or rather, make sure not to sit in the wrong place. If in doubt, get seats in the white section, which is mellower, in the middle and less partisan.
• To tour or not to tour: most hotels or hostels can set you up with a company like bealocal.com who will pick you up, get you tickets, and bring you to and from your seats. Be aware, though that naturally there is a premium for this—the evening will set you back about 70 USD.

Note that games are played later than you may expect, to allow working people to get home and then to the game in time. At the time of writing, weekday games start at 9:45pm and weekend games at 6:10pm.

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