Brazilian Soccer Is Too Big To Fail
To understand Brazil’s economic woes, one should consider how politics has ruined the country's most venerated sport.
It's no secret that the economics of the Brazilian soccer world are dysfunctional. For the most part, teams are poorly run, member-controlled organizations with histories of financial mismanagement, run by overpaid managers with little accountability. For years, soccer clubs stopped paying taxes and evaded social security obligations. And the government often rescued them from financial failure -- as it may be about to do again.
According to an October piece in the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Brazil's soccer clubs have run up a 4.8 billion reais ($2.1 billion) tab with the federal government.… Seguir leyendo »