>>149433596>we started to care about copalib>VAR introducedI don't want to come off as arrogant but these two things cannot be understated. Brazil spent decades ignoring the Libertadores in favour of state/national championships and European tours. In the 2000s you could already see a Brazilian strenghtening trend in the competition. Even though only São Paulo and Inter managed to win, Brazilians were featured in the finals almost every year. Palmeiras, São Caetano, Santos, Atlético-PR, Grêmio, Fluminense and Cruzeiro were all finalists. Brazil has been dominating the competition since Inter won again in 2010, and the gap has been widening ever since.
But although economic matters are indeed important, I feel like they're secondary to the Brasileirão's superior league structure. Brazilian football has come a long way in terms of professionalism, structure and competitiveness since the introduction of the 20 clubs, 4 relegated league system. National competitions were a pathetic mess until the 90s. Rules would change every year, the competitions were barely profitable, and every 5 years or so we'd get something like Copa União, the 1996 scandal or Sandro Hiroshi. Ten years ago we were all laughing at Flamengo's medical staff carrying an injured Paulo Victor in a cartwheel during training. If Brazilian football is richer and more competitive now, we owe it to the model that made it viable. Now take a look at the Argentinians and see how they're doing it.
