History
Football was introduced to Brazil by a Scottish expatriate named Thomas Donohue. The first football match played in Brazil was in April 1894, played on a pitch marked out by Donohue next to his workplace in Bangu.
In the 1870s, like many other British workers, a Scottish expatriate named John Miller, worked on the railway construction project in São Paulo with other European immigrants. In 1884, Miller sent his 10-year-old son Charles William Miller to Bannister School in Southampton, England to be educated. Charles was a skilled athlete who quickly picked up the game of football at the time when the Football League was still being formed, and as an accomplished winger and striker Charles held school honours that gained him entry into the Southampton Football Club team, and later into the County team of Hampshire.
In 1888, the first sports club was founded in the city, São Paulo Athletic Club. In 1892, while still in England, Charles was invited to play a game for Corinthian F.C., a team formed of players invited from public schools and universities. On his return to Brazil, Charles brought some football equipment and a rule book with him. He then taught the rules of the game to players in São Paulo. São Paulo Athletic Club won the first 3 year's championships. Miller's skills were far above his colleagues at this stage. He was given the honour of contributing his name to a move involving a deft flick of the Ball with the heel "Chaleira" (the "tea-pot"). The first match played by one of Miller's teams was six months after Donohue's.
Charles Miller kept a strong bond with English football throughout his life. Teams from Southampton and Corinthians Club travelled to Brazil to play against São Paulo Athletic Club and other teams in the city of São Paulo. After a tour of Corinthians to Brazil in 1910, a new team in Brazil took on the name of Corinthians after a suggestion from Miller.
The Brazilian Football Confederation was founded in 1914, but the current format for the Campeonato Brasileiro was only established in 1959.
In 1988, São Paulo Futebol Clube celebrated its centenary playing the English side Corinthians at the Morumbi Stadium. The English Corinthians finished its tour by going against the local professional Sport Club Corinthians Paulista team, who counted the likes of Sócrates and Rivelino amongst its roster, at Pacaembu Stadium in São Paulo. True to the Corinthian principles of fair play, the score was 1-0 in favour of the locals when, as agreed, Socrates changed shirts to play alongside the English amateurs. This did not affect the score, although a largely packed stadium was cheering on for a drawn result.
It was announced that on September 29, 2007, that the CBF would launch a Women's Association Football league and cup competition in October 2007 following pressure from FIFA president Sepp Blatter during the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup in China.
Read more about this topic: Football In Brazil
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