Social Networking Shaping Brazilian Football?

By: Bruno Romani | January 26th, 2008

If you haven’t been living in Mars with strange little men living in Mars with strange little men in the past 5 years, you know how social networks have become part of the human methods for wasting time. It was just a matter of time the influence of websites of social networks over football. In Brazil, when talk about social networks, we talk about Orkut (Yes, if you’re planning on finding THAT Brazilian hottie, that’s where you should be).

Petrolina

In the past week, Brazil saw 3 examples of how social networks may change how clubs and players communicate with fans. First, a fan of América-RN, club just relegated to série B of Campeonato Brasileiro, wrote on the forum of the club on Orkut his dissatisfaction with midfielder Juninho Petrolina. Things such as “he is not a player for the club,” “he creates rivalry among the players” and “he is expensive and hides himself of the game all the time” could be read on the forum. Well, five days later, Petrolina himself answered the fan on the forum, using his personal page. Petrolina was bitter and stated right away, “You’re right. I’m not a second division player. I’m a first division guy.” Then he talks about his resume. He calls the fan “misinformed,” “dumb” and accuses him of not being a real fan of América. Of course, Petrolina got support of many fans and the fan ended up deleting his account on Orkut.

Following the example of Petrolina, Paulinho Massaro, forward of Paraná, left a message on Paraná’s forum. Massaro says to the fans his sorry for the poor football he has developed this season and asks fans for patience and support. Then he drops a classic line, “It’s very difficult for a player on the pitch to be booed off. It ends up affecting the performance and with your help I can play much better.” Poor guy. Some fans replied he will need lots of support because he is really bad. Coincidence or not, Paraná was also relegated last year.

But it is not only players who are using Orkut to communiate. Parnahyba Sport Club, the oldest football club in the state of Piauí created a profile (or someone claiming to work for the club) on Orkut and started sending messages to players, professional or not, to play for the team in the state’s championship. The replies to the campaign initiated on Jan. 12th have been diverse and odd. Some were “Right now, I got not credits on my cell phone. You tell the president to call me.” Or, “My weapon is the ball, my territory is the pitch and my destiny is the goal.” Luckily for Parnahyba, there’s only eight clubs in the state championship of Piauí, and no word of relegation is out.