Brazil's football system is broken, says Pele's daughter

TORONTO, July 9 : Brazil's football system is broken, with a lack of transparency and accountability in its administration reflected in the national team's performances, Kely Nascimento, activist filmmaker and eldest daughter of former Brazil great Pele, told Reuters in an interview.

"Brazilian football is broken. Whether it is corruption ... it's like a closed, very incestuous ecosystem where no one can see inside, and everybody knows why it is not working, but nobody can fix it," Nascimento said.

She said the country's wealth of talent continued to produce top players, but that their struggles on the international stage were symptomatic of deeper structural problems.

Brazil were eliminated from this year's World Cup following a 2-1 defeat by Norway on Sunday, the first time they have failed to reach the quarter-finals since 1990. They won the last of their record five World Cups in 2002.

Nascimento said her late father had long voiced concerns about the state of Brazilian football and contrasted the country's decline with nations such as France, which she said appeared to have built more effective systems.

One encouraging development, she said, was the revival of traditional clubs through foreign investment, citing Botafogo's resurgence under U.S. businessman John Textor. Since acquiring a controlling stake in the Rio de Janeiro club in 2022, Textor has overseen a steady turnaround in the fortunes of the former Brazilian champions.

"There's a lot of criticism about how he's handling it, but, again, there's good and bad to everything," Nascimento said. "What he's also bringing is transparency ... he has accountability to a foreign body. To me, that's a positive, regardless of everything he's being blamed for."

(Divya Rajagopal