Can someone post information about the historical backgrounds/ supporters of the major clubs in Brazil? I am starting to really love the Brazilian league, but as a non-European league, I really have no idea about the dynamic of how the teams' supporters and history break down. For example, in Italy Juventus draws a ton of fans from the south due to the Fiat/ employment connection. Milan/ Inter was long divided by working class and southern immigrants vs. Milanese bourgeoise (and now a large international immigrant population). Roma/ Lazio has its distinct breakdown of supporters and history as well.
What are the stories behind the rivalries and supporters of the big clubs, like Sao Paulo, Santos, Corinthians, Internacional, Flamengo, Flum, etc.?
Particularly wondering about SANTOS, I am really loving their current squad.
It's hard to sum it up, but I'll try.
As I posted somewhere here before, Brazilian League just comes to proeminence in the 60/70. Before that, Brazilian football was played regionally, every big State has his own tradition, history and rivalries. The teams were rooted locally. At that time it was more important to beat your local rival than a team from another state.
After the Brazilian league was really estabilished by the 70's, it slowly overpassed the regional Leagues, that become very decadent in the 00's - at least for the big clubs.
At the 60's and 70's the only really national clubs are the one's in Rio de Janeiro - Flamengo, Vasco da Gama, Fluminense and Botafogo - because the National Radio broadcasted the Carioca Championship for all Brazil, specially North, Northeast and Center-west. For years Rio de Janeiro was the Capital and cultural centre of Brazil. The football just follow this trend. At the time FlaFlu (the derby Flamengo x Fluminense) in the Maracanã becomes a icon, and by the 80's Flamengo was the most popular team in Brazil with the world famous team of Zico, and still is today. Botafogo and Fluminense declined a lot since then, and today Flamengo x Vasco is the biggest derby there (also, Vasco da Gama win a lot of titles from 97 to 2002). Vasco was the team of the Portuguese community, but that has changed. Today, they and Flamengo have supporters in almost all Brazil, but Flamengo much more than Vasco, Now Flamengo is most identified with the low class.
Santos just comes to proeminence in Pelé days. Santos is a city harbour in São Paulo with huge cultural influence from Rio de Janeiro. That team in the 50'as and 60's were THE historical team in Brazil. Pelé, Pepe... it becomes a cultural icon in Brazil, and along with Garrincha's Botafogo and Seleção 58, 62 and 70 (at the time a question of politics for the military regime trying to build a national identity). In this scenario the romantic football, or art-football was born.
After Pelé, Santos started to decline in supporters and victories, and just returned to win titles with Robinho and Diego in 00's. So, Neymar and Ganso is said to be the "third generation". They plays that art football style there and RJ: short-passing offensive football, speed, open spaces and small-sized dribblers.
Rio de Janeiro has a big historical role, but São Paulo is the most important State in Brazil, and have the richest teams today. In the Capital there is Palmeiras, São Paulo and Corithians. Coming from a smaller city, Santos never matched them in number of supporters. Palmeiras is the team identified with the Italians, São Paulo with the bourgeoise and Corinthians with the working class. And with the massive immigration from Northeast that São Paulo receive from 50's to 80' (becoming a city with more than 20 millons of people), Corinthians also become more and more supported, altough winning very few titles in 70's and 80's, and is now the second most supported in Brazil - and growing. São Paulo has also a lot of teams in small but very rich cities that come to proeminence from time to time, like São Caetano, Santo André, Paulista, and two teams with tradition and local support in Campinas: Guarani and Ponte Preta. It's hard to say what is the biggest derby, but Corinthians is the most supported and also the most hated there. São Paulo is the third most supported in the country overall.
Also there is Atlético and Cruzeiro in Minas Gerais, teams strong supported in the city of Belo Horizonte. Cruzeiro has much more titles, they are one of the biggest champions clubs in Brazil, but Atlético is the most popular and has the most fanatical supporters. Even without titles (not a National title since the 70's), his support never steped down. In the small towns of this State, however, teams from RJ and SP are very supported, more than Atlético and Cruzeiro.
There is a different case in Rio Grande do Sul, the southern most State (were I live). This is the only State were teams from SP and RJ have no support at all. Rio Grande do Sul is a more independent State, with a different culture, more spanic (from Uruguay and Argentina) and European influence, and his own media. There, Internacional and Grêmio rule in all the State, they have two of the most fanatical suporters in the country and the strongest rivalrie in all Brazil. Here you not just born "gremista" or "colorado", but you born hating the other. This teams plays more of an "anti-art" style of football, more physical and voluntarious, alike to the argentine and uruguayan (if some of you watched World Club Cup in 2006, Internacional 1 x 0 Barça...). Also, here the supporters are not organized like the ways of Torcida Organizada in the rest of Brazil. Here there is Barra Bravas, like the other south american countries - Geral (Grêmio) and Popular (Inter). The two clubs growed a lot this past years, they really can beat everyone these days.
There is also more low rated teams with strong support, but no match at all for the above one's. In Paraná, in the South, there is Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba an interesting the local derby, but not much traditions in National level. In Recife there is Sport, Náutico and Santa Cruz, popular clubs who are now in the lowest divisions. In Bahia there is Bahia and Vitória, another popular derby, but they almost never fight for big titles.
Hope this help
