Photo from Folha de S. Paulo
Nice to see Corinthians fans protesting the team’s new third choice shirt yesterday, a wine coloured top that has little do with the club and sells for 190 reais, or a third of the country’s minimum wage.
Angry supporters invaded the pitch during their match against Coritiba and tried to give their traditional black and white shirts to players who were wearing the wine one for the first time.
Corinthians fans are known as the most passionate in Brazil and pride themselves on their moniker, a Band of Nutters (I translate gratuitously).
I’ve always had great respect for that passion and it was great to see them reacting against the rampant commercialism that we see all over the football world. I wish more fans did the same.
The club, or rather sponsor Nike, said the new shirt was in tribute to Italian club Torino, whose players were killed in a plane crash in Turin 50 years ago this year.
Why Corinthians need to mark the 50th anniversary of something that happened to another club a continent away wasn’t clear.
Other than it gives Nike the chance to appear empathetic. And sell more shirts to the gullible.
4 comments
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October 18, 2011 at 6:45 pm
Independent politics
Thanks for the update on the protest, i spend my day researching this stuff..so it’s always nice to come across a blog like this.
October 18, 2011 at 7:19 pm
andrewdownie
Cool, keep reading and thanks for posting!
December 9, 2011 at 8:50 am
R Barotto
Such ignorance Corinthians played a game against Torino just a year before the all Torino team died in the crash and this is the reason why the tribute shirt. get your fact right before writing silly comments. And by the way they are not the only team in South America paying tributes to That Torino team.
December 9, 2011 at 11:22 am
andrewdownie
Roberto,
I mention the Torino link the story.
The protests were real. And that was what the story was about, the commercialisation of football.
I hope fans keep fighting for their team and their passion and against the big businesses that want to control them.
Cheers, Andrew