NPATO Apropos Serie A...og behovet for reformer...
" Many football fans have expressed their desire to take a rest from the game, a couple of weeks of recovery and relaxation, allowing for a smooth comedown and a fresh appetite for the start of the European season. Fans in Brazil, however, have no such luxury.
Due to the Brazilian FA’s complete ignorance of how to create a spectacle, the Brazilian championship gets back underway this evening, only two days after the World Cup final was played at the Maracanã.
Six of the 12 World Cup stadiums will be in use in this midweek round of games, although only three of those are for top-flight matches. In the second division, Recife’s Arena Pernambuco will host Náutico v Sampaio Corrêa, Arena das Dunas in Natal will see América-RN v Bragantino, while the Arena Pantanal in the centre-west city of Cuiabá is strangely hosting Vasco da Gama (from Rio de Janeiro, in the south-east) against Santa Cruz (from Recife, in the north-east).
Why would Vasco choose to play a home match around 1,000 miles away from Rio de Janeiro? They are serving the final match of a punishment handed to them by the CBF for fan violence, forbidding them from playing at their home stadium. Instead of staging the game just outside of Rio, they are trying to ride Cuiabá’s World Cup wave and squeeze as much money as they can out of the situation. "
http://ilikefootballme.wordpress.com/og" More frustrating than this are the ticket prices stipulated for these matches. In tonight’s second division matches, the cheapest ticket to the Arena Pernambuco is R$ 50 (around £13), while any Vasco or Santa Cruz fans willing to make the trek to Cuiabá will have to fork out R$ 60 for the cheapest ticket to the Arena Pantanal.
The first division matches are not much better, Corinthians and Cruzeiro have set their cheapest tickets at R$ 50, bearing in mind that this only accounts for a small section of the stadium. Seats with reasonable views are going for anything between R$ 80 and R$ 180.
This might not sound like much compared to British prices, but when put up against the average monthly salary in Brazil, these are the most expensive tickets in world football. In 2012, a study was conducted to this end and showed the Brazilian league to have the highest ticket prices compared to average earnings, using a mean price of only R$ 38. If this post-World Cup trend continues, the average will increase further and more and more will be excluded from the sport. "
http://ilikefootballme.wordpress.com/ 
'%3e%3cpath%20d='M23.2353%2021.9137L12.5999%2033.3367C12.9298%2034.5801%2014.0493%2035.4899%2015.3787%2035.4899C15.9085%2035.4899%2016.4083%2035.3484%2016.8381%2035.0855L16.8681%2035.0653L28.8429%2028.0801L23.2353%2021.9036V21.9137Z'%20fill='%23EA4335'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M34.0106%2019.9728H34.0007L28.8329%2016.93L23.0054%2022.1765L28.8529%2028.0902L34.0007%2025.0879C34.9003%2024.5925%2035.51%2023.6322%2035.51%2022.5303C35.51%2021.4285%2034.9103%2020.4681%2034.0106%2019.9829V19.9728Z'%20fill='%23FBBC04'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M12.5999%2011.6633C12.54%2011.9059%2012.5%2012.1485%2012.5%2012.4114V32.5988C12.5%2032.8616%2012.53%2033.1042%2012.5999%2033.3468L23.6051%2022.217L12.5999%2011.6633Z'%20fill='%234285F4'/%3e%3cpath%20d='M23.3153%2022.5L28.8229%2016.93L16.8581%209.91446C16.4283%209.65163%2015.9185%209.5%2015.3687%209.5C14.0493%209.5%2012.9198%2010.4199%2012.5999%2011.6532L23.3253%2022.4899L23.3153%2022.5Z'%20fill='%2334A853'/%3e%3c/g%3e%3cdefs%3e%3cclipPath%20id='clip0_17015_1796'%3e%3crect%20width='23'%20height='26'%20fill='white'%20transform='translate(12.5%209.5)'/%3e%3c/clipPath%3e%3c/defs%3e%3c/svg%3e)