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Press Overload and President Lula

June 6th, 2006 | By: Euler Costa | 14 Comments »

Overload There are already signs of stress regarding the Brazilian press coverage on this World Cup. For the first time we have live training, for an example. While it was on Switzerland there was a natural curiosity about it, as I wrote before. It was nice to see how much the fans cared about them, gathering full capacity of supporters even under extreme cold and heavy rain. It was very cool to see Sheila running over Ronaldinho to be then covered by Robinho’s blue mat.

Now you have days without action, fans and news. Today we could watch Parreira press conference where all the reporters asked exactly the same questions and we heard exactly the same answers. The killer blister is gone and Nike got his old shoes back. Move on, people!

Reading the newspaper today I found some of the reader’s letters that express this kind of feeling and I’ll translate them for you here. It is the hammering effect, probably, like happened before with Ricky Martin’s ‘La Vida Loca’ and with the ‘Joga Bonito’ Nike commercials. Nobody can stand them anymore, right?

One more coach Here are the letters the O Globo newspaper received after printing an article about our President Lula talking about the World Cup.

“That the World Cup may be the center of attentions while the Brazilian society should be thinking about more important issues, that’s ok. But it was very disappointing that ‘O Globo’ opened such a big space for the President to expose his feelings about the Seleção. He is no coach and, as far as I know, no authority in the matter of football. He should, instead, be questioned about issues he still didn’t answer to, like corruption in his political party.” (from Pedro Rangel)

“Excellent, really exceptional, the interview President Lula gave to ‘O Globo’ about football. He showed not only to be a master of politics but he knows all about the football world.” (Sérgio Cavalcanti)

“I like football and I want Brazil to get the hexa. But there is an exaggeration in the journalistic coverage of the World Cup. Hundreds of journalists talking about the same things every day; daily interviews with the Ronaldos; debates over the same subjects and, to top it all, a two-page interview with President Lula shooting his guesses, happy not to talk about politics.” (Luciano Bezerra)

One of the letters was from a happy Lula fan, as you can see. I must be honest with you. The elections are not far from today and I absolutely hate to see politics mingle with our beautiful sport. I can see that it can bring peace in some rare cases, but other than that I can only despise. I voted for Lula but his political party (left-winged) was a big disappointment. Now when he shows his mug on the paper to talk about our dear Seleção, he just buried himself, at least in my consideration.

Why bother? About the over coverage, it is a direct reflection of how our team is hyped this year. Not only by the Brazilian fans and press, but by the international press too. I already said before that I didn’t like to see Parreira smiling that much after the New Zealand match. He denies but I think the ‘oba-oba’ bug got him already. Anyway, I rather have this overload of information than to have less than enough. My remote control is working fine and I can change the channel if I’m tired to watch it.

Tags: Group F, World Cup 2006

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Comments

By Miguelinho | June 6th, 2006 at 3:37 pm

I love that remote of yours! Slick shape and backlit LCD.

Posted from United States

By Euler | June 6th, 2006 at 4:36 pm

Too bad it’s not mine. The one I have is very simple, really.

By Balaban | June 6th, 2006 at 4:50 pm

Croatia is the best, just remember that after we beat you. The score will be 2-1 for Hrvatska!!!

Posted from Canada

By zharga | June 6th, 2006 at 7:30 pm

dreeeaaam Balaban dreeaam..ain’t gonna be that way…

Posted from Fiji

By GILMAR | June 7th, 2006 at 10:36 am

Brasil, Campeão da Copa do Mundo 2006!

Posted from Brazil

By Vin | June 7th, 2006 at 11:50 am

In other news:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/world_cup_2006/teams/brazil/5055020.stm

Is Ronaldinho seriously asking for special treatment?

I laughed so hard I almost spit tea all over my computer monitor.

I expect better from him. He should be ashamed.

Posted from United States

By lucas | June 7th, 2006 at 12:50 pm

caralho voces viram o jogo da franca contra china, o chines quebro a perna do jogador frances, caralho muito impressionante a imagem, partiu ao meio literalmente a canela do jogado, acho que ficou preso apenas pela carne, muito fodido.

By zé | June 7th, 2006 at 5:06 pm

Vin: that article is a bit out of context (he’d never say something like this and I watch interviews with him all the time).

It’s in fact about something that has been the core of a long pre-world cup going debate in the brazilian press… the difference between the “tough” playing style and the “fair” playing style. Parreira (Brazil’s coach) seems to think that one of the biggest problems on this WC will be referees allowing too many fouls, not being sharp enough and without issuing red and yellow cards due to the fact that referees used on matches will be from other continents (ie, a European nation vs a South American nation will have an african or asian referee) leading to some matches with ‘less than great’ referees) leading to a match played by physical strength more than anything else.

Nobody wants special treatment and this is not an issue - remember that the vast majority of the players on the Brazil team play on Europe. They’re just worried that referees without too much WC experience will be too lenient.

By Miguelinho | June 7th, 2006 at 5:42 pm

Ze is right. Did you see how France’s Cisse got hammered in a “friendly” against China? You could actually see his leg breaking on the tape.

When a referee loses control of the match, some players start getting away with stronger and stronger tackles. Eventually, these reckless challenges can end a player’s season or career.

I’m not sure if this is what happened in the France/China game, but football should never morph into wrestling - regardless of which two teams are on the pitch. We already have hockey for that!

Posted from United States

By zé | June 8th, 2006 at 4:44 am

Well, when they have a TV 24 hours a day transmitting live from the training fields, they have to make up stories to fill in the void. Really.

The newest story is Ronaldo’s fever. HOORJ! RONALDO HAS A FEVER! CRY TV COVERAGE AND LET SLIP THE DOGS OF PRESS, let’s talk about Ronaldo’s fever nonstop and through in a few blister mentions until we actually have something worthy to talk about. WHO SHOULD REPLACE RONALDO IN THE EVENT THAT HE HAS A HEADACHE? News at 11.

I can’t wait for the cup to actually start so we can discuss thinks like goalkeeper-made goals, odd goal commemorations, best-looking goals, and stuff like that. The daily Ronaldo drama and daily Pele-said-Cadu/Robert-Carlos-said game is making me sick.

That’s why I watch my TV on mute.

By zé | June 8th, 2006 at 4:47 am

Wow, I made my post (June 8th, 2006 at 4:44 am) as a reply to Leonardo’s post (June 8th, 2006 at 8:53 am) but mine teleported to somewhere before his on the list.

By Leonardo | June 8th, 2006 at 8:53 am

I’m completely SICK of the over coverage of our press. In SporTV the people is already making stories about the content of the trash cans of the training fields !!!! It´s true, I couldn´t believe that! The live training is absolutely BOREDOM, and I can´t stand another comment about Ronaldinho “Bubble”!!!

I´m really hating this “oba-oba” that Euler mentioned that Parreira got. The first half of our game against New Zeland was absolutely BULLSHIT, and our defense was horrible, as always, even against a weak team like New Zeland.

As a side note, I wanted to kill myself while listening to Galvao Bueno arrogance through the entire New Zeland game. This guy is disgusting.

Posted from Brazil

By Euler | June 9th, 2006 at 9:54 am

Wow! Vin and Zé already discussed about what I just posted!!! Darn! I just got back in town to finish that post fast before another computer breakdown and now I read this??? I’ll add your names to it!

By Leonardo | June 9th, 2006 at 4:20 pm

Zé, you said everything. I really hope that with the REAL games in the world cup the press will stop making such stupid coverages.

Posted from Brazil

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