Invisible majority? In a country where more than one in two inhabitants is black or mestizo (55.8% of the population), only one Brazilian first division team is led by a black coach. Jair Ventura, son of Jairzinho, legendary attacking world champion in 1970, and passed by Olympique de Marseille, acts as an exception in Goias.
Yet accustomed to cheering black football stars like Pelé, Brazil therefore has almost only white coaches in its clubs, one of the consequences of the racism that still undermines the country, the last in America to have abolished slavery. “The racists, who were hiding before, are uninhibited by the attitude of the head of state (Jair Bolsonaro), they know that he thinks like them. We must resist!”reacted to AFP, Roger Machado, one of the only black Brazilian coaches a few months before the next presidential election scheduled for October.
More often than not, entire seasons are spent with only white technicians at the helm of elite clubs, while the black population is the majority in terms of players on the pitch.
The real problem is that this debate is non-existent within Brazilian football. Brazilian society is not shocked by the absence of black people in positions of responsibility. Football reflects our racist society
Marcelo Carvalho, director of the Observatory of racial discrimination in footballat AFP
In the last American country to have abolished slavery, in 1888, the black coaches who have led elite clubs in recent years can be counted on the fingers of one hand: Andrade, Cristovao Borges, Marcao, Roger Machado and Jair Ventura. And this, even if Brazil is considered the world champion of the coaches waltz. A question of skills? Hard to defend when csome have disappeared from circulation when they had proven themselves, like Andrade, champion of Brazil at the head of Flamengo in 2009.
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“There is a prejudice, very ingrained, structural, (…) against black coaches, and we must fight against this prejudice”, recognized the current coach Tite, in October. The Seleçao, five-time world champion, had only two black coaches, Gentil Cardoso (1959) and Vanderlei Luxemburgo (1998-2000), a half-breed who was slow to recognize himself as a black man.
Unlike most players, coaches wield real power within clubs, which experts say explains the prejudices inherited from slavery, which call into question their ability to lead men.
“At the time of the abolition of slavery, black people were left to fend for themselves, without a policy to give them opportunities. In the collective imagination, black people are absent from circles of power and responsibility because they do not aspire to it, or because they do not possess the necessary intellectual qualities”insists Marcelo Carvalho.
Roger Machado, coach of the historic Gremio club, says he was regularly the victim of racism, sometimes being taken for a bodyguard for his Métis daughter. “The first times I was sacked, it was said that I was not capable of managing the squad, whereas when I was a player, I was often captain and I was rightly praised for my qualities as a leader of men“, he told AFP.
If the fight against racism has made progress in recent years in Brazil, Machado does not see the same momentum on the side of football. “There is still a lot of room for players and coaches to get more involved, but I don’t blame them. Players are conditioned not to speak out on matters that do not directly affect the pitch”he continues.
Brazil is, unfortunately, no exception: during the last World Cup, in 2018, only one of the 32 nations in the running, Senegal, had a black coach, namely Aliou Cissé.