Century-old store South American crisis: Santos relegated Another landmark event in the decline of South American football
For the first time in the 110-year-old history of Santos, Santos has been relegated! From the first relegation of Brazil's No. 1 giants Corinthians in 2007, to the 2010 South American champions' first failure to qualify for the final of the Club World Cup, and the first relegation of Argentina's No. 1 giants River Plate in 2011, and then to the first relegation of Santos in 2023, these landmark events tell the truth that South American professional football has entered a downward path.
Santos is not Brazil's most popular and commercially valuable giant, but they enjoy a special and distinguished status in Brazilian football because of the training of Pele and Neymar, as well as the club's golden years as a "world football ambassador" in the 1950s and 70s. Unfortunately, this "team of the kings of the ball" was relegated from the Brazilian league last week, which is also the first time in the history of Santos in 110 years. Santos fans vented their dissatisfaction with the shame by burning cars and creating a riot. But in fact, the relegation of the century-old Santos is just another microcosm of the deterioration of South American football in the 21st century.
The decline of professional football in South America has been evident from the first relegation of Brazil's No. 1 giant, Corinthians, in 2007, followed by the 2010 South American champions' first failure to qualify for the Club World Cup final, the first relegation of Argentina's No. 1 giants River Plate in 2011, and then the first relegation of Santos in 2023.
There is more evidence - 10 of Brazil's 13 traditional powerhouses have been relegated in the last 17 years, a total of as many as 15 times, including 3 times by Vasco da Gama! and the South American champions have missed the final of the Club World Cup as many as 6 times in 13 years, and the defeat at the competitive level has risen from Brazil and Argentina to the level of the European and American Club World Cup, which can be described as a total rout.
The widespread failure at the competitive level is only a symptom, and the underlying cause is the economic crisis that has swept across South America. Compared to the glorious days of the last century, when it could compete with European football, South American football, especially professional football, is undoubtedly in a difficult situation.
The relegation of the century-old giants Santos for the first time may not be much of a shock for fans who are not familiar with South American football today. Even in Brazil, apart from some die-hard Santos fans, the Brazilian media and ordinary fans are generally numb to Santos. After all, since the 21st century, the relegation of Brazil's top 13 giants is not uncommon, and everyone has long been Xi to the situation of giants being ruined. As Global Sports put it: The only consolation is that Pele doesn't know about this catastrophic shame.
The relegated Santos is saddled with a huge debt of nearly 700 million Brazilian reals (142 million euros) and currently has a net worth of -400 million Brazilian reals! Looking at the entire 20 clubs in the Brazilian Liga League, the total debt exceeds 11 billion Brazilian reals (US$2.2 billion), which is a terrifying reality.
The situation is equally bad in Argentina, where 140 clubs have a combined debt of $985 million. Among them, the independent club, one of the five giants, has a debt of more than 20 million US dollars, is on the verge of bankruptcy, and has been banned from recruiting by FIFA sanctions due to non-payment of transfer fees. There have been 127 legal lawsuits involving debts, including transfer fees, unpaid wages for coaches and players, commissions from brokerage companies, management fees from the Football Association, and the cost of food, clothing, housing and transportation for the team. Among them, it even owes $80,000 to a local Chinese-run supermarket! Independent clubs have had to raise $1 million from fans to settle FIFA's transfer dispute before they can temporarily get out of bankruptcy.
Last year, the Spanish tax office published a list of two clubs each, Brazil and Argentina. Santos, Cruzeiro, Banfield and Atlético Argentina together owe more than €10 million in taxes to Spain, all from taxes they pay on the sale of players to La Liga. Among them, the Athletic Club is in arrears of 3.5 million euros, and Santos is in arrears of 3.3 million, which shows the financial embarrassment of South American football.
One of the few positive examples in Argentine football is River Plate, which made a profit for the fourth consecutive year last season after a relegation crisis, with a record profit of $52 million, of which a record 350,000 members brought in $40 million in dues revenue for the club.
Tragically, however, the collapse of the Argentine peso in exchange rate has dealt an additional economic blow to the Argentine club. This is because all liabilities denominated in U.S. dollars have recently doubled due to exchange rate issues. In particular, the club's domestic income is still settled in Argentine pesos, which means that the real income has dropped sharply.
While this is true for Brazil and Argentina, the two most economically powerful countries in South America, the rest of the country is even more struggling. In 2020 and 2024, the Copa America has been held in two consecutive years, and the original hosts, Colombia and Ecuador, have both abandoned hosting due to the economic crisis, which has really embarrassed the South American Football Confederation. The 2020 Copa America was originally co-hosted by Colombia and Argentina, but due to the pandemic, it was postponed to 2021 and the wild card teams invited to participate were also abandoned, making the tournament the smallest since 1991. Twenty-four days before the start of the tournament, Colombia relinquished the hosting rights due to the social unrest in the country caused by the economic crisis, and Argentina also abstained 10 days later due to the outbreak of the epidemic. Thanks to the help of the Brazilian president, the Copa America was not suspended.
The same is true for the 2024 Copa America, which was originally scheduled to be hosted by Ecuador but voluntarily abandoned last November. In January, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) handed over the cup to the United States to host the tournament on the grounds of a new strategic partnership with the CONCACAF Football Confederation, and at the same time expanded to 16 teams, as was the case with the 2016 Centennial Copa America. The United States regards this cup as a test match for the 2026 World Cup, and only the 12-16 teams in the Copa America cannot find a host country in South America, even the Africa Cup of Nations is not so embarrassing.
The all-out crisis from competition to economy at the league level, the embarrassment of hosting major events at the national team level, South American football has reached a deep crisis. FIFA forcibly designated Spain-Portugal-Morocco to host the 2030 Centennial World Cup, ignoring the emotional demands of the four South American bidders led by Argentina, and the fundamental reason is also that the South American economy is sluggish, and it is impossible to ensure that the 48-team World Cup will be held with high quality. In the end, the three South American countries only received a "handout" for each hosting one game as a commemorative event. Even, this kind of "handout" did not even receive Chile, one of the bidding countries. The angry Chilean Football Federation asked the South American Football Confederation and FIFA for an explanation, but it has not been resolved so far. Because of the overall decline of South American football, the South American Football Confederation has long had no say in front of FIFA.
For South American football, the result of the last 20 years of globalization has been a widening gap with European football. Athletic, economic, coaching and player talent are in a precipitous decline across the board. Therefore, the crisis of the century-old Santos will inevitably plague other old giants. Brazilian football is bailing itself out of its debt crisis with capital injections. However, Argentina is still stubbornly clinging to the traditional membership system, coupled with inflation and economic crisis more serious than Brazil, if Argentina wants to enter a virtuous circle of sustainable development, I am afraid that the "fierce medicine" of the new President Milley will be necessary.