01: A Bolívia Querida
Introduction to Sampaio Corrêa FC
Fans of the Bolívia Querida celebrate the promotion to Série B in 2013. Ph: O Estado / Unaccredited
The city
Just a couple of miles south of the Equator lies the beautiful city of São Luís, the capital of the state of Maranhão, and one of the northernmost bits of the Northeast region.
Inhabitants of this region tend to be particularly amorous with their communities, and because of that, the city of São Luís has plenty of nicknames: The Island of Love, Brazilian Jamaica, Brazilian Athens, Magnetic Island, Beautiful Island, Rebellious Island, and many others.
The city is estimated to have a population of 1,1 million people, the fourth most populous city in the Northeast region, behind Salvador, Fortaleza, and Recife, and being a couple of people over the city of Maceió. Poverty is still a problem, and now a growing problem in the city, but
no one likes to attach the image of their city to that.
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São Luis' Old Town: colorful, culturally vibrant, and a World Heritage Site according to UNESCO. Ph: Omar Junior
São Luís is a city rich in culture and history. Before independence, São Luís has been under control not only of the Portuguese but also the French and the Dutch. Today,
the city has a strong afro cultural scene and their fondness for reggae has given the city the title of Brazilian Jamaica.
The club
Founded in 1923, Sampaio Corrêa Futebol Clube is not a well-known club outside Brazil, despite being by far the biggest club of Maranhão. In Brazil, the club is known nationwide due to the amicability of the institution and
their unusual colors, being an equal balance of yellow, red, and green. The resemblance of the colors of the club with the Bolivian flag gave the club the nickname of "Bolívia Querida", or "Beloved Bolivia" in a free translation. No one can tell the club's dominant color, but the home jersey is one of the most beautiful pieces of cloth in the sport.
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Sampaio's players celebrating a goal against Bahia in the Cup of Northeast. Ph: press release / Sampaio Corrêa
In this story, Sampaio lies at the Série C of the Brazilian system, being relegated from Série B in 2018. The club is currently playing three competitions, which I will explain for what they stand, what they mean for Sampaio Corrêa, and the expectations of the club.
- Campeonato Maranhense (Maranhão State Championship): state championships are a heritage of a time when traveling around Brazil had unpleasant logistical complications. For comparison purposes, the first edition of the Maranhense was played in 1918, while the first edition of any kind of regular national tournament only came in 1959, in which Bahia, the champions played 14 games, but the runners-up, Santos, played only 5.
State Championships, until 2003, when Brazil adopted the round-robin format, fulfilled the gap of games created by the lack of games at the national level. Now, they are ruins of their golden ages, but as no one can decide what to do with small clubs if these championships are scrapped off, they still stand.
- Copa do Nordeste (Cup of Northeast): regional tournaments were an attempt of evolving the state championships in the 1990s, but out of them, only the Northeastern one prospered. Run regularly since 2013, the tournament has become a good source of revenue for their clubs, since the tournament is a huge success with the public. The winner and the runners-up of each group get a tasty BRL 1,9 million, the third and fourth places get BRL 1,4 million, fifth and sixth make 1,2 million, and seventh and eighth get 510 thousand Brazilian reais, so winning or being second in the group is an amazing source of revenue for medium-sized clubs.
- Brasileirão Série C: reformulated in 2009, the Série C has a different system than Séries A and B. Instead of being a round-robin competition with the 20 clubs, they are divided into two groups of 10, following the criteria of the logistical costs (the regional pattern was broken in 2019 due to the high amount of Northeastern clubs in the level, and all Northeastern clubs were left in the same group, with another group having both Southern and Northern clubs in it). 8 clubs play the quarter-finals, with 4 breathtaking encounters for a place in Série B. The title, after that, becomes not as interesting.
The 2020 season
Yashin
has been hired some months into the 2020 season. The expectations are:
Campeonato Maranhense: the expectation is to clinch the title, but the board won't cry too much for anything else. As they play in Série B, Imperatriz are the favorites. The
group stage is over and we ended first. The image attached to the link may contain spoilers to which I don't really care about, as this competition is not important.
Copa do Nordeste: the expectation is not to suffer a sheer humiliation, but the team was not doing bad having chances to qualify with one game short of the end of the group stage. Unfortunately, I forgot to print it.
Brasileirão Série C:
we are expected to be the 12th strongest team, which is absurd. We can do much better than this with the squad we have.
Copa do Brasil: unfortunately, the imbecile that managed Sampaio Corrêa before me managed to get knocked out of the cup before I arrived.
It is a bummer because the Copa do Brasil, differently of the cups anywhere else, is highly valuable, and its winning prize is more than 50% bigger than the winning prize of the league. Clubs knocked out in the first round got BRL 919 thousand.
If you make it into the 5th round, when the clubs in Copa Libertadores join the contention, you get a total of BRL 7,7 million. In sum, we lost our biggest potential source of revenue even before we got here.
The best players
Out of the players in our squad, four of them jump to the eye:
Andrey, 26: our goal-keeper has stats good enough for a reasonable Série B team, being by far our most valuable asset. Unfortunately, we are at a level that doesn't allow us that much transfer revenue.
Luan Ferreira, 24: our incisive open right-winger has decent attributes for the division, being capable of creating chances or scoring himself.
Roney, 28: his attributes are not impressive for an inside left-winger, but he has that special something to score goals.
Thiago Santos, 29: the physical striker has goals running in his bloodveins and is nearing the slaughter age for the Asian market.
Replies
@ScottT well, now you know a little
@TheLFCFan thanks m8