Brazilian Footballers Cross Their Arms And Refuse To Play In ‘Common Sense’ Protest Over Fixture Congestion

Chris Wright

14th, November 2013

7 Comments

By Chris Wright

Players from Goias and Ponte Preta observe a minute’s nothing for the Bom Senso protest

In what is being labelled as the ‘#BomSensoFC’ (which translates as the ‘Common Sense FC’) movement, Brazilian players up and down the domestic leagues are uniting to protest against the punishing length of the season and fixture congestion issues in their homeland by simply going out on their respective pitches and refusing to play.

The ‘Bom Senso’ protest is gathering traction across the country sees players (as well as supportive fans and pundits, including former Arsenal midfielder Gilberto Silva) standing still and crossing their arms for the first few minutes of the game to try and force their message across.

On Wednesday night, scores of games began with similar protests – the highest profile game being the Serie A fixture between Sao Paulo and Flamengo, which began with the two teams first parading a banner across the pitch before kick-off, huddling together in the centre circle and then aimlessly rolling the ball around for the first few minutes of the game…

Several well-known names in Brazilian football have openly pledged allegiance to the Bom Senso group already, with the likes of Dida, Rogerio Ceni and Alex all voicing their support – though the group are still frustrated that the Brazilian football federation (CBF) are refusing to pay full and proper attention.

There has been some progress however, with the CBF declaring that, as of 2015, Brazilian football will shut down in January for “a month of vacation” mid-way through each season – though they refused to implement it this coming January as changing the footballing calendar in the months leading up to the World Cup would be fraught with issues.

Bom Senso are also hounding the CBF to discuss Financial Fair Play as smaller teams continue to struggle to keep their collective heads above the water, though the CBF as yet have been willing to open talks on the matter.

Pies are right there with you brothers…

babysalute

Though, admittedly, we never though we’d live to see the day that Brazilians were refusing to play football.

Posted in Newsnow, South America

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7 Comments

  1. syndex says:

    “huddling together in the centre circle and then aimlessly rolling the ball around for the first few minutes of the game” that was 90 miniute s of the everton v palace game on Saturday.

  2. Steve-o says:

    Difficult to sympathize with men who 1. CHOOSE to play a game for a living and 2. play a game for a living.

  3. Cheeky B15 says:

    I think Steve-O is holding back. What a load of old toss this is. High tier professional football sucks.

  4. SL says:

    I dont feel sorry for them, how about doing a 60 hour a week job or playing an 82 game NHL season and then an unpaid playoffs with up to 28 games. They play 3 or 4 games every week including back to back nights even if they gly in at 3am the previous day.

  5. THE69ERSFC says:

    The Mascot getting in on the act as well!

  6. Wilson says:

    Brazilians refusing to play football, yep, the world is going to end.

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