Brazil in the World Cup 2010

Matches of the Brazilian team are always amongst the most viewed events in Brazil, even more so during a major event such as the World Cup. So, several large companies want to associate their brands with the Brazilian team.

In Brazil, the manager of the image of the Brazilian team is CBF, the Brazilian Confederation of Football; CBF is a private entity, and can, within the boundaries of law, sign the marketing contracts they consider to be best for the team and CBF.

Currently, the sponsors of the Brazilian team are:

Nike. American manufacturer of  sports shoes, clothing and gears. Nike supplies all the uniform set of the Brazilian team.

Itaú. The largest private bank in Brazil; in 2008, Itaú, which was already one of the largest banks in Brazil, announced a merge with another large bank, Unibanco.  Interbrand rates Itaú as the most valuable brand in Brazil. The name is of Indigenous origin and means  “black stone” (ita =stone, ú = black).

Vivo. The largest cellular phone company in Brazil. The name means Alive.

Guaraná Antarctica. Guaraná is a berry fruit from the Amazon, used to produce a soft drink of same name. It is the biggest competitor of Coca-Cola in Brazil; until a few years ago, Coca-Cola was a sponsor, but Antarctica seems to have outbid them.

Gillete. The American manufacturer of razor blades has a strong presence in Brazil. The Mach 3 commercials (starring Roger Federer, Tiger Woods and Kaká) are often seen in TV and magazines.

Extra. A Brazilian supermarket chain; Extra is one of the brands of a larger group called Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf), one of the largest retailers in Brazil. It is a competitor of French Carrefour and American Wal-Mart, which also struggle to become leader of this market in Brazil.

TAM. The largest airline company in Brazil, it is the company flying the team to the Cup and back home; in 2002, the official carrier was Varig (which faced bankruptcy). TAM used to stand for Transportes Aéreos de Marília (Air Transports of Marília – Marília is a somewhat large city in the interior of São Paulo), but as the company grew the name was changed to Transportes Aéreos do Mercosul (Mercosul Air Transports).

Most sponsorships cover all Brazilian teams (Under 17, Under 20, Principals), both genders  (Men and Women) and, at least, as long as the 2010 World Cup. CBF usually doesn’t disclose financial details of the contracts.

The South America Qualifyings for the World Cup 2010 finished this past weekend.

Brazil finished the Qualifying in first place (with 34 points), followed by Chile, Paraguay and Argentina (see full table here); these four countries are qualified for the 2010 World Cup. Uruguay, who finished fifth, will face a play-off against Costa Rica, the winner also being qualified to the Cup.

Brazil played the last match against Venezuela, in Campo Grande, in a 0 x 0 draw. Brazil had already secured presence in the Cup by beating Argentina a few weeks ago. Coach Dunga used the two last matches to experiment with new players.

The most dramatic situation was Argentina’s. Los hermanos had to win two tough matches to go to the Cup. First, they faced Peru; at 85 minutes, Peru scored a goal to equalize the score; only with a goal at 92 minutes, with Palermo in off-side position (that the referee overlooked), could Argentina add two extremely valuable points to their tab.

The video below shows Palermo’s goal. Notice that there is a Peruvian player between Palermo and the goal line, but the goal keeper is not there; so, as there is not at least two adversaries between him and the goal, Palermo was off-side.

Thanks to those two extra points, Argentina had one leading point when playing the final match, against Uruguay; Uruguay had to win to qualify. Instead, Argentina won by 1 x 0, much to the relief of coach Maradona.

Does that mean that Brazil is a favorite and Argentina an underdog for the 2010 Cup? Probably not.

Both in1994 and 2002, the Brazilian team left for the Cup without much hope of winning, and ended up being the Champion; on the other hand, Brazil was THE team to beat in 2006, and the campaign was one of the biggest fiascos in Brazilian history.

That’s what the Argentinians are hoping for. In 2002, much like Brazil in 2006, Argentina had a constelation of stellar players, including Verón, Riquelme, Batistuta, Sorin, Ortega, which some (including Time) considered favorite to win the Cup, but didn’t get past the first stage. Argentinians and Brazilians know that, leaving to the Cup with a low profile (and less pressure), there are good chances that the team performs well.

FIFA is making over three million paid tickets available for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. One million tickets have been allocated to FIFA commercial affiliates, hospitality providers, National Confederations and broadcast outlets, and the rest will be available to the general public.

The only official channel to buy tickets online for the World Cup 2010 is through the FIFA website; see prices of tickets.

Sale of tickets online is happening in five phases (actually, six phases, if we consider phase zero below):

Phase zero: FIFA published the schedule of matches of the World Cup 2010, with dates and places; each match is given a number; teams are still unknown (except for the opening match, which will have South Africa as one of the players).
People can buy tickets either individually for each match (identified by the respective number) or by sets of tickets for matches of a country (FIFA called these sets TSTS, Team Specific Ticket Series). So, for example, an English fan can buy a TSTS for all three matches of England in the first stage of the Cup, or a TSTS covering the three initial matches plus the next round, or even a TSTS for all seven matches.

Phase one: from 20 February 2009 to 31 March 2009 (closed). All people interested in tickets filled an application order (online or printed and sent through mail). Result of the applications was announced on April 15th 2009. For any given match or TSTS, if the number of applicants was lower than the number of tickets available, the purchase was confirmed; if there were more applicants than tickets, then a draw had to be conducted to determine the purchasers (the date of application is not relevant for the draw – submitting early or late makes no difference for the draw).

Phase two: from 4 May 2009 to 20 November 2009. Ticket applications submitted during this stage will be processed, subject to availability, on a first come first served basis; there is no draw involved. (Update, December 5th 2009: FIFA informed that during phases one and two 674,403 tickets were sold – 90% of tickets made available).

Phase three: from 5 December 2009 to 22 January 2010. This phase follows the same rules of phase one. The draw to select applicants will happen on February 10th 2010. The (big) difference between phase one and three is that the later will happen after the final draw of groups, and hence all matches will be known.

Phase four: 9 February 2010 to 7 April 2010. Same rules as phase two: tickets sold subject to availability on a first come first served basis.

Phase five: 15 April 2010 to 11 July 2010 (World Cup kick off is on June 11th, final match in on July 11 2010. Ticket applications will be processed on a first come first served basis, however Ticket transactions will be conducted immediately at the point of sale.

Besides these tickets for sale online, FIFA will distribute a number of tickets to all Federations which will play the finals of the World Cup, and yet more tickets to the official sponsors; Federations and sponsors will inform later how they will distribute those tickets.

FIFA has signed agreements with travel operators from around the world to sell packages to South Africa which include the tickets (the tickets are still sold by FIFA, not by the operator).