Brazil's football crisis deepen after missing Paris Olympics

Brazilian football is in crisis mode and has been for some time now. One after another, one of the most iconic and celebrated national teams has hit roadblocks in the last year. The collapse is felt on and off the pitch. As many fans and analysts had hoped to see 17-year-old striker Endrick — who is set to join Real Madrid this summer — and 32-year-old Neymar play together, that dream has been shattered after Brazil failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics. With that, Brazil’s quest for an unprecedented third straight gold medal has been ended even before taking the flight for Paris. Many expected Endrick to showcase his talent during the Olympic qualifying tournament. But the Brazilian teenager scored only twice in seven matches. In the end, Brazil were stopped short of qualifying by arch-rivals Argentina in a 1-0 defeat. In the decisive South American Olympic qualifier, Luciano Gondou scored the winner for the Argentina U-23 team coached by Javier Mascherano. Gondou headed a cross from Valentin Barco past goalkeeper Mycael in the 78th minute at the Brigido Iriarte Stadium in Caracas. “It is sad, but it is more of an embarrassment,” Brazil striker John Kennedy said after the loss. “We should have wanted to win more than we did.” South America’s Olympic qualifiers for men’s football offered two spots. Paraguay will join Argentina in the event after finishing top of the table of the final group stage with seven points in three matches. The Olympic tournament features U-23 players and does not carry the same prestige and pride as that of the World Cup or Copa America but missing out completely would still sting the football-mad team. Especially with many seeing Endrick as the country’s next big star. This isn’t the first time Brazil have failed to qualify for the Olympics. They had missed the spots in 1992 and 2004 but those blips didn’t coincide with a general collapse for the national team and federation. The Selecao are sixth in South American qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and Neymar has been out with a serious knee injury since October. Last year, Brazil lost a home fixture in World Cup qualifying for the first time ever (1-0 to Argentina at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro). They also lost at Uruguay and Colombia in the round-robin competition after two poor performances. The senior team will return to action in March with friendlies against England and Spain. There have been own-goals by the administration as well. Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF), the national federation, president Ednaldo Rodrigues courted Real Madrid’s Carlo Ancelotti for a long time and made an official announcement as well. Until the Italian opted to stay put in Spain while Brazil appointed Dorival Junior as the new manager . Previous coach Tite stepped down after Brazil lost in the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup, and the team had been led by Fernando Diniz on an interim basis last year. The frustration of seeing Argentina win the 2022 World Cup as well as the last Copa America has only added to Brazil’s embarrassment and the pressure on Dorival. “Brazil wasted a full year in preparations because we waited for a top coach (Ancelotti) who had signed no contract with us,” said former Brazil left-back Júnior. “We burned a promising coach, Fernando Diniz, just so he could be interim for a year. The time to fix all this for the next World Cup is very short.”

Then Brazil faced the risk of suspension by FIFA after Ednaldo returned to helm the organisation despite being removed by the Rio de Janeiro Court of Justice. As Federal Supreme Court minister Gilmar Mendes ordered Rodrigues’ return to office, FIFA also clarified that sanctions would not be placed. His full case is yet to be reviewed and is facing calls for resignation. (with inputs from AP)