Abstract
Nation-building, a process allowing the moral integration of humans in a certain polity though they might belong to different social strata, hardly made progress in 19th century Brazil, where illiteracy was widespread and where a huge gap separated the wealthy elite from all of the rest - blacks, poor people of mixed ethnicities and first generation recent immigrants. By supplying a dynamic arena where all of the above could compete on equal terms football introduced a valuable instrument of nation-building, and the great successes in international competitions added to its capacity. Right now, however, Brazil is facing huge problems in its urban centers, such as proliferation in the use of drugs and loss of control over city life to organized crime. Together with this its political elite and elected office holders have been tainted with corruption, and the current president, representing the rich and the far right, is devoid of commitments to the vast majority of poor Brazilians. It is difficult to see how football can be of help in the complexities of the present.
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