Hello, Good Morning...


Haven't posted for a while, been so busy setting-up new programs and other new developements regarding volunteer and cultural exchange programs - not to mention other stuff!

Anyway, we are really getting choc-a-bloc for the summer period, with no current vacancies available in Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo, we do however have spaces in Recife, Olinda , Salvador and Porte Alegre.

Rio and Sao Paulo will be good for June onwards - it's just May which is now fully booked.

A bit of a change of subject for all you Brazilian Football fans - the Brazilian Soccer Season starts today (Saturday 10th May)...

I have penned a Brazilian football articles about Serie A...

Série A (Brasileirão) is where the big boys play, there are currently 20 teams in the league, who play the usual one home and away against each other - the objective besides winning it, of course, is to avoid the drop into the wilderness that is Serie B - but 4 teams will ultimately, at the end of the 40 games have to face that humiliation.

One of the things to realize about Brazil is the huge geographical area it covers, and an away game can take a few flying hours - this however, doesn't usually affect the teams, but what it does do is ensure that home crowds are partisan - this is lessened in games involving teams from the same state, because there will be some away fan presence.The teams that tend to dominate the top-half of Serie A are the Sao Paulo and Rio De Janeiro sides.

Below, you will find the teams in the Brazilian Serie A this year, the 4 teams in red were promoted from Serie B.

Atlético Mineiro MG
Atlético Paranaense PR
Botafogo RJ
Coritiba PR (promoted from Serie B)
Cruzeiro MG
Figueirense SC
Flamengo RJ
Fluminense RJ
Goiás GO
Grêmio RS
Internacional RS
Ipatinga MG (promoted from Serie B)
Náutico PE
Palmeiras SP
Portuguesa SP (promoted from Serie B)
Santos SP
São Paulo SP
Sport PE
Vasco RJ
Vitória BA (promoted from Serie B)

You will notice a series of 2 letters after the football team name, this indicates the State the team is from, there is a key below:
State Key:
RJ = Rio de Janeiro
MG = Minas Gerais
PR = Parana
SC = Santa Catarina
GO = Goais
SP = Sao Paulo
RS = Rio Grande do Sul
PE = Pernambuco
BA = Bahia

You will note from the above , that there are only 9 states represented in Serie A - actually a third of the countries states - of course , all 27 states are madly and passionately in love with football, but they are just not currently good enough for Serie A.

Naturally, with promotion and demotion at seasons end, this can change , year-on-year.Here follows a map of Brazil, with all states marked clearly, along with their capitals.

If you intend following Serie A this season, it will pay you to familiarize yourself with the geography - in addition to noting the Rio and Sao Paulo teams.

Both principalities account for 8 of the 20 teams:

Rio teams are; Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo and Vasco.

Sao Paulo teams are; Sao Paulo, Santos, Palmeiras and Portuguesa.

Recife, Pernambuco, in the north-east has 2 teams, Nautico and Sport.

Also from the north-east , Bahia has 1 team; Vitoria.

Minas Gerais which borders Sao Paulo and Rio has 3 teams; Atlético Mineiro, Ipatinga and Cruzeiro.

Whilst the southern state bordering Argentina, Rio Grande do Sul, also has 2 teams in the shape of; Gremio and Internacional.

Parana, also has 2 teams , Atlético Paranaense and Coritiba.

Santa Catarina and Goias each have one representative, Figueirense and Goiás, respectively.

If you have already studied the map and team location you would have noticed that most of the teams in Serie A are from the southern part of Brazil, the teams furthest north this season are Nautico and Sport in Recife, Pernambuco.

There are states in Brazil which are bigger than some European countries, - and as in all regions of the world, football rivalry is no different in Brazil.

It's worth noting that there are two layers and primary aspects of rivalry in Brazilian football. The first is the obvious rivalry between teams from the same state and city, but just as intense , is inter-state rivalry.

Hope you enjoy following Brazilian Soccer and Serie A this season...

PS: Go Nautico -