The Brazilian national team concluded their whirlwind tour of Singapore that saw them pit against Senegal and Nigeria over the past few days at the National Stadium.
These friendly matches were scheduled as part of the exclusive arrangement between the Brazilian FA (CBF) and Pitch International, a leading sports marketing agency, under the "Brasil Global Tour" package that began in 2012 and will continue till the 2022 World Cup tournament.
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| Liverpool's Roberto Firmino (20) made his attempt against Nigeria |
POOR CROWD FIGURES
As compared to the
51,557 that packed the same arena five years ago to witness the "Seleçāo" featured against their Japanese counterparts and saw superstar Neymar Jr. netted all four goals, a paltry crowd of 20,621 turned up for the designated hosts'
one-all draw with Senegal on the first night despite having some of the biggest names in the game.
It could probably be due to the fact that it was on a weekday that explained the poor turnout at the Brazil-Senegal game, while some cited the pricey admission charges for attending those matches, as
reported by the Straits Times.
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| Some Brazilian fans were among the crowds in the Brazil-Nigeria match |
Even CBF head of technical development Juninho Paulista also registered his disappointment after the first match in the same news report over the poor attendance by saying "... it is disappointing because we always want to play in front of many fans."
Other than those factors mentioned, another possibility of such a lukewarm reception could be the timeframe from the announcement till the realization of the event that coincided with the World Cup qualifiers staged around the region during the same period.
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| Philippe Coutinho (11) replaced Neymar Jr. early in the game |
Compared to the building to other matches of similar scale held recently in the republic, the announcement of the "Brazil Global Tour in Singapore" was only made known to the media via a press release issued by TEG Live, the organizers, on 17th of September, less than a month prior to the first match played on 10th of October.
TIGHT TIMEFRAME
Usually, matches of such scale would see regional fans flown to Singapore to get up close with the marquee names but given the short timeframe mentioned, it proved to be a challenge to woo the regional fans let alone having to target the local residents to part their hard-earned monies for these friendly games which were subject to
criticism from Brazilian coach Tite and
some sectors of the local football fans over scheduling of these matches.
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| Nigeria's Victor Osimhen (9) got ahead of Thiago Silva (3) in this aerial duel |
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| Paul Onuachu (19) flanked by Thiago Silva and Dani Alves (right) |
A last-ditch effort was made to boost the ticket sales did not seem to work when a slightly lower crowd of 20,385 fans attended the second match between Brazil and Nigeria that saw the match ended with another one-all draw.
It doesn't look pretty for the Brazilians as this result meant they have not won a match in their last four outings, although the bigger question is - has the "Seleçāo" lost their pull power to fill the stands or simply because local football fans would prefer to be on the couch than at the ground?
Have to agree with your analysis, but just to add another observation: I realise that even when I attend the local football matches, there will always be a not-insignificant number of white (aka ang moh) people in the crowd. Just like people ask “why is there no/so few Chinese Singapore footballers”, I ask “why is there a smaller proportion of/ fewer local Chinese football fans”.
ReplyDeletePerhaps, really, our people are not so passionate about sports and football after all.
I think the marketing for the event could have been better. Prior to the event, only had 1 time they had the percussion band do the 'Brazilian beats'. And the disappointing thing was no booths selling related memorabilia at the stadium or anywhere else. And the pricing, tsk tsk... basically overall failure.
ReplyDelete