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Neymar Jr said "Goodbye" before made his exit from the Nigeria game due to injury |
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 begun in 2012 which 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 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 among the crowds in the Brazil-Nigeria match |
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Gremio's striker Everton (19) was targetted by some European clubs before extended his contract |
Other than those factors mentioned, another possibility of such 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 |
TIGHT TIMEFRAME
Usually, matches of such scale would see regional fans flown to Singapore to get up close with the marquee names but given 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) |
It doesn't look pretty for the Brazilians as this result meant they have not win 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