The TRUTH about Brazil’s Football DOWNFALL

Another World Cup and another failure from the  Brazilian national team. And then one has to  

wonder why has Brazilian football declined so  much? How bad is it actually? How much of the  

criticism is fair? And how much of it is just an  overreaction? Has Brazil actually declined? Have  

they just been unlucky? What is going on? Today  I want to dive into all of that. Hello. Hello.  

If you're new here, I'm Filippo and welcome to  Chappelle Football. And today I want to dive  

into the Brazilian football crisis because you  know after Brazil loses a World Cup it's very  

easy to blame one specific player or the coach.  The issues go far deeper than that. And I'm not  

saying Anchelotti is not at fault or this player  that player but that's just an oversimplification  

of it. Today I want to dive into the crisis like  what's happening the reasons for this crisis and  

possible long-term solutions. cuz it is very funny  when you're diving into Brazilian football like  

the clubs, the Brazilian clubs, they're richer  than ever. They're doing better than ever. But the  

national team, it's been quite the opposite. And  before we even start, I want us to cut the crap  

with one specific thing. Brazil won the World  Cup in the '60s and 1970, right, in 1958. And  

then they won two World Cups in 1994 and 2002.  The 1994 and 2002 World Cups where Brazil won,  

let's cut the crap, they did not win with Joa  Bonito, okay? Let's just leave that out of the  

equation. Everyone's gonna say, "Oh, Joab Bonito  is dead since the 90s." Like, no. 1994 was not  

Shoga Bonito and 2002 was also notabonito. Okay,  with that said, make sure to share your thoughts  

in the comments section down below. Why do you  think Brazilian football or Brazilian national  

team, right? Not the clubs, but the national  team. Why are they doing worse than ever? Let  

me know your thoughts. Drop a like in this video.  It's a great way to support the channel for free.  

Just drop a like right now. I'm waiting for it.  and make sure to subscribe to the channel if you  

have not already. Okay, let's roll the intro and  start the episode by talking about the crisis.

Okay, so before we talk about the reasons,  let's dive into the crisis. And for that,  

we have to dive into the results. Like what's  going on with Brazil? Have the results actually  

been that bad? And for that, I want to dive into  what has Brazil accomplished ever since they won  

the World Cup in 2002, which is 24 years ago.  So, ever since Brazil won the 2002 World Cup,  

they have won three Copametas. One in 2004, one  in 2007, and last but not least, which is kind  

of recent, right? They won the Copametica in 2019.  Brazil has also won three Confederations Cup. One  

in 2005, one in 2009, and one in 2013. During this  time, Brazil also won two Olympic gold medals. So,  

when you really think about it, it hasn't  really been that bad. Brazil also qualified  

to every single World Cup. All always made it to  the knockout rounds. The problem is in Brazilian  

football ultimately you get judged based on how  you do in the World Cup. And that's a big problem.  

In the World Cup, Brazil has not done great.  Think about Chi-Chi for a second. He was in  

charge of Brazil in the 2018 cycle and 2022 cycle.  throughout the cycle in World Cup qualifying, Copa  

America that he won, all of that. Chi-Chi actually  did very well, but he failed in both World Cups,  

right, in 2018 and 2022. And that's where you get  judged. So, let's talk about Brazil over the past  

few World Cups. Okay, so from 2006 till now,  Brazil has reached the semi-finals only once,  

and that's not good enough for Brazil. And  the only time they reached the semi-finals,  

they were humiliated by Germany 7-1 at home,  which if we're going to be completely honest,  

that's the biggest humiliation in Brazilian  football history. That 7-1 loss to Germany in the  

min in Brazil in the 2014 World Cup. In all other  editions besides the 2014 one, Brazil has lost the  

very first European side that they faced in the  knockout rounds. All of them in the quarterfinals  

except for 2026 where Brazil was knocked out in  the most recent World Cup in the round of 16.  

Coming into the 2026 World Cup, Brazil had their  worst World Cup qualifying campaign ever. Yeah,  

it was the worst World Cup qualifying campaign. It  was a mess. They had multiple coaches. Things did  

not go well. And the World Cup was also ultimately  a disaster. And here's the thing. Brazil is now  

tied for its longest World Cup drought since  1930 to 1958, which is 28 years, right? Because  

if Brazil was to win a World Cup, the next one  would be in 2030. But think about this. This is  

actually the worst World Cup drought for Brazil in  their entire history. They've had two, right? Run  

one from 1930 to 1958. But in between those World  Cups, which is when it was starting, we had World  

War II. So, we didn't have a few additions.  So, I don't think that one really counts. The  

other drought was from 1970 to 1994, which was 24  years. Now, Brazil is going to go towards 28 years  

all the way till 2030. Just be honest with you,  looking at the generation coming up, I don't see  

how Brazil wins the 2030 World Cup. They're not  bad players. They're talented. I just don't see  

Brazil as a They'll be a contender. They'll have  a shot in the 2030 World Cup. Brazil is always  

a contender, but I don't think the generation  coming up is better than the team we had in 2018,  

and it's definitely not better than the team we  had in 2022, but they'll be better than the one  

in 2026. And I want to make one thing clear. Um,  now we're going to talk about the reasons, right,  

of why Brazil is struggling. I just want to say  one thing from the get-go. It's not due to lack  

of talent. Brazil still has incredible players,  very talented players that are succeeding in  

Europe. We'll talk about that in a second. So,  cut the crap on that as well. It's not due to a  

lack of talent. And as I said, ultimately, Brazil  gets judged based on how they do in the World Cup.  

And for the past several World Cups ever since  2006, Brazil has flopped and failed in every  

single edition. And now you're going to drop a  like in this video and subscribe to the channel if  

you haven't already. And I am going to dive into  the reasons of why Brazil is struggling so much,  

but only if you hit the like button like right  now and subscribe. Okay, the reasons. Now listen,  

I've seen a lot of Brazilians talking about the  rise of evangelicals in Brazil and how there were  

less Catholics now. And that's one of the reasons  why from a cultural standpoint, the national team  

doesn't succeed anymore. I'll say this, I'm not  evangelical myself. And I don't want to dive into  

religion in this video. But just being completely  blunt and honest with you, I think that's just an  

excuse. Okay? There are many reasons why Brazilian  football is struggling. I do not believe religion  

is a reason. Okay, just to make that clear from  the get-go. And even though they make some good  

points, I think that's just an excuse. They just  don't know who to blame. And then all of a sudden,  

religion became the issue. I just want to make  that clear. So, I'm not going to dive into that  

reason because I don't firmly believe it is  a legitimate problem. All right? But you're  

entitled to your opinion. You're entitled to your  excuses. So, you can blame whatever you want. If  

you want to blame the rise of evangelicals  in Brazil, that's fine. Reason number one,  

so let's dive into that. It's a bit of a cultural  problem with Brazil as a country. And I'm going to  

say it. When it comes to like CBF and Brazilian  football, CBF is the federation. Brazilian  

football is the entire thing, right? The entire I  guess soccer or football ecosystem. There's a lot  

of corruption and political instability. So,  let's dive into that. So, first and foremost,  

no one wants to talk about this, but the Brazilian  national team and Brazilian youth football has  

been hijacked by agents and corporation. Like,  think about this for a second. When it comes to  

youth football in Brazil, right, themies, if  you have the right agent, you can pretty much  

get into any academy you want, even if you're  not an incredible talent, right? Of course,  

you can't just be a complete scrub and complete  [ __ ] but there's a lot of bang average players  

that gain access just because they have the right  agent or daddy is the right politician. There's a  

lot of corruption going at that level and no one  wants to talk about it. That is the reality. And  

ultimately, what happens is the most talented  players sometimes get left out. Very often at  

youth football in Brazil, it's more about who  you know rather than how you play. I know it's  

uncomfortable to hear that, but it's true. Whether  it is agents bribing youth coaches, agents or  

politicians bribing a football director of a club,  whatever it is, that is the reality of Brazilian  

youth football these days. It's the truth. So, we  still manage to develop many talented players, but  

you get some nepotism. You get some entitled guys.  And and again, I even joke about this. Brazil used  

to have guys that were ruthless. Nowadays, the  Brazilian soccer players are mostly like Tik Tok  

dancers. But anyhow, corruption at the youth level  is insane. probably at all-time highs these days  

because of the transfer fees and how much money  they can make. So, that is a big issue. The other  

problem is political instability with the CBF, the  Football Federation of Brazil, and it starts up  

top. And the problem is when you have instability  up top, eventually that reaches the field. So,  

let's talk about CBF real quick. If you don't  have serious people working up top, as I said,  

the issues show up on the field. And for seven  consecutive terms, CBF had five presidents that  

were removed. banned or arrested, which let's be  honest, that is nuts. That is insane. For example,  

Hikahada that was in charge of the Brazilian  Federation for what, two decades almost,  

or even over two decades, he had to leave  due to allegations of corruption, bribery,  

a bunch of nonsense. And that was back in 2012.  And then in 2019, he ended up being banned from  

football by FIFA. Then you had Jose Maria Marin  that was arrested during the FIFA gate. Maku Paulo  

Deonu was banned due to corruption. There was  also another guy that had to leave due to sexual  

harassment accusations. And most recently, we had  Agaldo Rodriguez. I made a whole video about this  

guy, so you guys can go check that out. It's also  insane. And everything that I just told you about  

all these presidents, corruption, allegations,  guys leaving, being banned, being arrested, all of  

that happened over the past 15 years. That's it.  15 years. Last but not least, when we talk about  

agents and corruptions, that has also reached the  senior team levels, right? The professional teams.  

When you're watching a game, whether it is for  club, national team, and you see that the coach  

made a very questionable decision. You're like,  "Oh, he's stupid. He doesn't know football." They  

know football. The problem is behind the scenes,  there's agents working overtime, and there's a  

lot of bribery, a lot of money going on. And then  coaches don't always select the best players for  

the roster, for the squad, for the starting 11.  Now, I'm not saying Carlo Enchelotti did that,  

okay? I'm not saying he did that. I'm not saying  previous Brazilian national team coaches also did  

that, right? Of taking certain players because  a politician wanted it, because the the the  

president of CBF wanted it, because an agent  wanted it, or because they took money. I'm not  

saying they did that, but I'm also not saying that  they did not do that. So, I'll leave it at that.  

Reason number two is the loss of the Brazilian  identity. Because it's not a talent problem,  

right? You look at for example the Champions  League final. Our two center backs, Gabriel  

Galenz Marinos, they were there. Venus Jr. is one  of the best players in the world. Rodrigo wasn't  

in the World Cup, one of the best players as well.  Plays for Real Madrid. Hafinga is incredible for  

Barcelona. We have many many good players  like Bruno Gimaran is a great midfielder in  

the Premier League. I I can keep going, right? I  can keep going. So, it's not an issue with talent.  

There's talent. The problem is Brazil very often  doesn't look like a cohesive team. They look like  

a bunch of talented individuals put together with  different styles of play, different development,  

and different culture. Think about this for  a second. Neymar was probably the last player  

that I've seen with the true essence of Brazilian  football, the flare, ruthlessness. He wanted to be  

the protagonist. He played with joy and was also  an incredible worldclass generational talent. But  

the problem is the current players are not like  that. I'm not even talking about talent level  

because Neymar is a different type of talent.  I'm talking about personality, the way they play,  

the way they express themselves, everything about  it. And the question is, why has this happened?  

Why? Why have the Brazilian players lost their  identity or they now have different identities  

and styles of play? Why is this happening? And  to that, I'll tell you that there are two main  

reasons. One is money, right? Usually, it's  money, right? When we talk about corruption,  

money was the big issue. And European influence in  the global game. So from the '9s beyond, more and  

more Brazilians started to go to Europe and each  decade it started to get worse and they started  

to go to Europe even earlier. Many of them leave  these days when they're like 18 years old, right?  

That's been happening for like 10 to 15 years. And  mind you, when I talk about Neymar, that didn't  

happen to him. Neymar stayed in Brazil until  he was like 21 and he also went to Barcelona,  

which is a team that from an identity standpoint,  there are some similarities to Brazil, unlike  

Premier League teams, for example. And the problem  with these players leaving so early is that when  

you're 18, you're still developing as a player,  right? Tactically, technical standpoint, mindset,  

how you play, you're still developing. And the  issue is you have players going to England,  

to France, to Spain, and getting different kinds  of development when they're 18. And what does that  

happen? You have a Brazilian player playing more  like an English player, like a Spanish player,  

like a French player. And when you bring all  of these guys together, it doesn't look like a  

cohesive team. The Brazilian identity and essence  of football, it's dead because of that. Along with  

all the European influence through the big leagues  that all the young Brazilians watch in Brazil  

these days, social media, it's died. Like if you  look back to Brazil from the past, I'm not even  

talking about Joab Bonito. I'm not diving into  that. As I said, 1994, 2002, that was not Joab  

Bonito. But the Brazilian players these days, they  don't look well lookwise they do, but I'm just  

saying they don't play like Brazilian players.  But it's not just that. If you think about like  

Brazilian youth football, we talked about the  corruption agents and all that. The top Brazilian  

development clubs, they no longer develop  Brazilian players to play in Brazil. They don't  

do that. They develop the players so they can sell  them to Europe. More specifically, mostly La Liga  

and the Premier League. I have bigger issues with  the Premier League because I think that's been  

terrible for the Brazilian players and we've never  had so many Brazilians playing in England. So the  

youth development in Brazil these days, it's not  meant to feed the national team or to even feed  

Brazilian clubs. You're not developing players for  that. You're developing them so you can sell them,  

let's say, to the Premier League. And that  unfortunately changes the entire approach  

of how you develop players, the characteristics  and attributes you look for, also the positions,  

right? You're not going to sell a fullback. So  you're like, why has Brazil stopped developing  

fullbacks? Well, because unlike forwards and  attacking midfielders, even center backs,  

you can't sell a fullback for 60 million euros,  40 million euros, that doesn't really happen. And  

it's funny because when you think about it, the  Brazilian clubs in Brazil, they are richer than  

ever. And they've never dominated South America  like they do these days. But the national team  

on the other hand doesn't look like its old self.  And lastly, when I talk about identity, just look  

at Brazil and the coaches they've had over the  past like 15 years, right? We've had coaches that  

are more free flowing, things are a bit more  fluid, and they play a little bit more of the  

Brazilian style of play. That didn't work. Then  you had Chi-Chi in charge of the national team.  

He implemented more of like positional play. I  thought the team had stability. It was pragmatic,  

but Brazil actually didn't look bad under Chi-Chi,  but ultimately in the World Cup, the positional  

play didn't work. Identity crisis right there.  Now, Carlo Angelotti comes in and he tries a  

reactive approach, something we haven't seen very  often with Brazil, if ever. Right? If ever, maybe  

the most similar thing we've have seen from the  2026 team was probably 1994, right? It was a more  

of a defensive structured team. That also didn't  work. What is Brazil's identity? What is it like?  

Try to put it into words. Not what Brazil was from  the past, but what is Brazil's identity right now?  

Can you actually put it into words in the comment  section? I doubt it. Reason number three, and this  

one might be also a little bit uncomfortable for  Brazilians to hear, and I lived in Brazil for many  

years, and I've coached Brazilian players in the  TST, the $1 million tournament. Some incredible  

players, by the way. I think Brazilians are  a little bit too emotional, and that is a  

mentality issue. So, what I'm going to give you as  an example here for the Brazilian national team,  

there's a lot of pressure to perform because  of Brazil's past, right? The legends we've had,  

the World Cups we've won. So there's a lot of  pressure on these players and Brazilian players  

used to be fearless, ruthless, arrogant, a little  bit like Neymar, which honestly as a player,  

that's a good thing. The new players, they're more  of like tick- tock dancers than actual players.  

The Brazilian players are no longer ruthless like  the ones from the past. And I know this may sound  

just kind of like lazy as an analysis, but look  at Brazil's eliminations from the World Cups from,  

I would say, 2006 beyond. There's there's always  been moments of like mental lapses and then  

Brazil just breaks down and loses the game. It's  never because we go toe-to-toe with the opponent  

and then and then I don't know just like we lose  because they're just so much better than us. 2006  

that one was weird. That team didn't seem to take  the World Cup seriously. There was a lot of talent  

in that team and they lost. 2010 Brazil dominated  the Dutch in the first half. In the second half,  

they had like 10 15 minutes of a mental lapse  between Jula, Philippe Melu and and ultimately  

that led to two goals, right? Schneider scored  off a header. That was ridiculous. And Philippe  

Melo got a red. All right. Mentality a problem.  2014, Brazil lost Neymah and Thiago Silva to play  

against Germany. Complete meltdown for that game.  Brazil is not that Brazilian team is not 71 worse  

than Germany. But you could tell that this team  was always nervous in every game. Brazil should  

have lost to Chile in the round of 16. They  were shaky every game. 2018 against Belgium,  

that Brazilian team was very good. But again,  against Belgium, what was it like 20 minutes of  

a complete mental collapse and Belgium got a two-0  lead. Then after that, Brazil dominated Belgium.  

But those like 15 minutes, those fine margins are  what makes it or breaks it in the World Cup. 2022  

again, Brazil was playing very well in the World  Cup. Brazil was great, right? They were doing  

well. And then against Croatia, Neymar scores  a brilliant goal. In like two or three minutes,  

Brazil has a mental lapse. Croatia scores. And  what happens after that? Brazil chokes on penalty  

shootouts. Mentality. 2026. Well, again, that was  a little bit of mentality, but there was a lack of  

quality in certain positions. And ultimately,  that's why Brazil lost to Norway, a team with  

Erlin Highland, a player that's actually ruthless.  And last but not least, reason number four,  

this is not why Brazil hasn't won the World Cup.  But people were asking why has Brazil started to  

lose to teams like Croatia, right? Start to lose  to Belgium, even though Belgium was very good.  

That was peak of their golden generation. Brazil  lost to Norway. And to that I'll say reason number  

four is the world has caught up. Now Brazil is not  a tier 2 team like um like for example Croatia,  

Norway. Brazil is somewhere in between right now.  Tier one and tier two. They're like in between.  

Okay, Brazil's no longer like the top of the top.  I think Spain's ahead. Um, France is definitely  

ahead. I would argue that England right now is  ahead. Argentina, based on results over the past  

like 5 years, they're clearly ahead of Brazil.  But ultimately, the world has caught up. So these  

teams right now like Norway, Croatia, Morocco,  they can all challenge the current version of  

Brazil. So I don't think when Brazil loses  to Norway, the way people were saying this is  

unacceptable, it's a bit of an upset based on  history. But when you go player by player and  

what they have, like Erin Holland is better than  any Brazilian player right now. Martin Odigard is  

better than any Brazilian midfielder right now.  So when you look at it from that perspective,  

it's not that big of an upset. So the world has  caught up. Like teams like Japan, Morocco, Norway,  

they've all improved drastically. While Brazil,  I don't think Brazil has regressed so much. It's  

more of like what I talked about mentality  um lack of identity and instability up top.  

But Brazil also hasn't improved, right? Brazil's  definitely not more talented than they were many,  

many years ago. I don't think they're that much  worse like people try to portray, but they're  

not more talented while these teams have gotten  better. The floor has gone up. So, those are the  

four main reasons in my opinion. You can let me  know yours in the comment section down below. Now,  

I want to talk about how do we fix it, okay? How  how can we fix this over the long run? There's  

no magic bullet, but what I want to say right  now is for you to drop a like in this video and  

subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.  So, obviously, one way to fix it is to try to  

clean up the mess that's Brazilian football.  Like I said, at the corruption level, agents,  

um, politicians, all of that. Now, that's easier  said than done. And because it's Brazil, I don't  

think it's realistic to end corruption. Okay?  So, I'm not even going to dive into that. Ending  

corruption is obvious, and I don't think it'll  happen. So, I'm not going to say that. But, what  

can be done that can maybe help us overcome all  those issues specifically? One, we probably need  

a national academy, right? That comes from the  federation. That way you can identify players from  

all over Brazil. All right? Help them develop.  Give them a platform and stop the whole corruption  

with agents nonsense. We get the best of the  best and we place them there. Norway has done  

that. France did it. Okay? And France is now the  best national team in the world. Brazil already  

has the infrastructure for that at the Granja  Kumari. That's the headquarter for the Brazilian  

Federation. What I think Brazil needs now is that  a national academy, an identity. Bring back the  

Brazilian players to Brazil, if that makes any  sense. Make the Brazilian players Brazilian again.  

I'm not trying to copy Donald Trump's quote right  there, but that might be the best way to go about  

it. Make Brazilian players Brazilian again.  And I also think when it comes to the Brazil,  

the Brazilian League, there has to be some kind of  regulations from the Brazilian Football Federation  

to try to hold Brazilian players to stay in  Brazil for longer. Whether it is homegrown rules,  

um decrease the amount of foreign players in the  Brazilian league. There's a lot of foreign players  

these days. They're great players, but reduce  the number. We have to find a way to try to  

keep the Brazilian player in Brazil until they're  21, 22. That is actually kind of important, okay?  

Okay. So they can identify with the country more  develop in Brazil and we recreate that Brazilian  

identity. Now it doesn't mean they should never  go to Europe. That's fine. We can still sell  

them. You still have to make money. But CBF and  the Federation have to find ways to regulate it  

so that players are not leaving when they're 18,  19 or 20. They stay till they're 21, 22, 23. Some  

of them stay forever. The Brazilian clubs are  richer than ever. So is it possible? Absolutely.  

But anyhow, those are the main things I'll try  to tackle right now, right? It's developing a  

national academy and regulations in the Brazilian  league to keep the Brazilian players there for  

much longer than they than they do now. Now, in  terms of the corruption part, I don't know what to  

do about that. That's a Brazil problem that goes  beyond soccer, beyond football. I don't know how  

to solve that. All right, everyone. That's my take  on the crisis that Brazilian football currently  

lives. It's unfortunate. I hope they bounce  back. I don't think they'll bounce back in 2030,  

but I'm very hopeful for the future, 2034, 2038,  and beyond. I want to thank you all very much for  

watching. Don't forget to subscribe and drop  a like in this video, and have a great day.