By Samindra Kunti
August 28 – The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) have released the calendar for the 2016 Brazilian domestic season: the top-flight Brasileirão will come to a halt for the national team’s World Cup qualifiers, but not for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
Brazil’s football calendar has always been out of sync with Europe and that won’t change in 2016. The months between January and early May are devoted to the State Championships, 27 across the vast territory that Brazil is. Thereafter the national championship will commence.
For next year’s calendar the CBF did not consider synchronizing the calendar with Europe, but a few alterations have been made.
For the first time the CBF have decided that the domestic top-flight will be halted when the national team is engaged with World Cup qualifiers. In the past, the conflicting calendar led to disputes between the CBF and the leading clubs of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo over the call ups and release of players.
The new calendar should enable Elias of Corinthians, Jefferson of Botafogo, Marcelo Grohe of Gremio and Lucas Lima of Santos, who all form a part of Carlos Dunga’s Brazil, to play for both club and country. CONMEBOL has not yet disclosed the schedule for the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in 2016, but Brazil will play eight matches next year on their way to Russia.
Oddly enough, the CBF have scheduled domestic top-flight games 24 hours after the national team’s World Cup qualifiers in effect undermining the purpose of the new calendar.
While the CBF have taken into account World Cup qualifiers in their new calendar, the 2016 Copa America and the 2016 Rio Olympic Games have been ignored: five Brasileirão match days and one round of the Copa do Brasil, the equivalent of the FA Cup, are set to take place during the Olympic Games.
Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo, Corinthians, Cruzeiro and Bahia, whose stadiums are venues for the Olympic football tournament, would have to relocate their matches, but there are few viable alternatives. In addition, Grêmio, Internacional, Corinthians, São Paulo, Cruzeiro, Atlético-MG, Flamengo, Fluminense – clubs with strong youth academies – will miss key players on duty with Brazil during the Olympic football tournament.
The new season will start January 31, 2016 with the State Championships.
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