New Galacticos fail to take off

Worldscene: As start-ups go, the new "Galacticos" of Brazilian football could hardly have got off to a worse start.

When Corinthians crumpled to a 5-1 defeat to cross-town rivals Sao Paulo last Sunday, it left them with just one point from their first three games in the Brazilian National Championship.

The defeat prompted two pitch invasions by outraged supporters, with one "fan" being blocked by police and security personnel as he moved menacingly towards the Corinthians coach, experienced Argentine Daniel Passarella. That incident came early in the second half at a time when Corinthians were already 0-3 down.

The significance of all this relates to the fact that Corinthians might nowadays be best dubbed the "Chelsea" of Brazilian football. Until last December, Corinthians, like many other famous Brazilian clubs, was tottering along, bolstered by its ability to unearth a seemingly endless supply of talent but weighed down by $20 million worth of debts.

All that changed with the arrival of Media Sports Investment (MSI), an international investment fund run by 33-year-old Iranian Kia Joorabchian. In a deal that broke new ground for South American football, MSI came up with more than $35 million to cover existing debts as well as provide funds to both develop the club.

In return for its investment, MSI will pocket 80 per cent of the profits from future player sales as well as 51 per cent of the profits from advertising, sponsorships, ticket sales and TV rights, all over the next 10 years. To underline the deal, Corinthians splashed out big on the market place, shelling out nearly $20 million for one of the brightest talents in South American football at the moment, namely Argentine Carlos Tevez.

The whole deal inevitably prompted mixed reactions with many questioning just why MSI was so keen to invest so heavily in perennially penniless Brazilian football. In particular, much was been made of the revelations that MSI is based in the Virgin Islands, that Joorabchian has been accused of fraud in a $19 million corporate litigation case before a New York court and Joorabchian is alleged to have close links with controversial Russian millionaire Boris Berezovsky.

Joorabchian has gone on the record to argue that MSI sees Corinthians as a sound investment. The idea is to make the club the Galacticos of Latin America, allying organisation and sound business practises to the club's supply of Brazilian football talent.

"We're an investment fund and it's normal that our investors wish to remain anonymous," he recently told Sportsweek magazine. "It's obvious why we chose the biggest club in Sao Paulo, the country's business capital.

"Our idea is to develop the club, to attract international sponsors (Corinthians have a 4 million annual contract with Nike), to develop both our own TV channel and another football dominated one as well as sell TV and merchandising rights abroad. One thing, too, we don't want to sell our best players, we want to import class players."

Those comments have not prevented the sceptics from suggesting that MSI is in reality a front for major Europe-based investors keen to get their hands on Brazilian football's most promising players for knock-down prices. In January, Brazilian MP Romeu Tuma claimed he had proof of links between Berezovsky and Chelsea magnate Roman Abramovich, going on to argue that the purchase of Tevez was simply a pretext, prior to a subsequent move to Chelsea.

Of that, we will see more anon. What we can say for now is that under Passarella, appointed just two months ago, Corinthians have made a poor start to the national championship. Prior to Sunday's 5-1 drubbing, they had also lost away to Botafogo as well as drawing their opening game with Juventude.

On top of that, Corinthians were also eliminated last week from the Brazilian Cup after a penalty shoot out with little Figueirense.

So tense are relations between coach Passarella and some of his players that the shoot-out defeat even led some commentators to speculate that talented playmaker Roger had deliberately missed the final penalty in order to hasten Passarella's sacking.

Roger has vehemently denied the accusations. But the fact that such questions have been asked say much about the current state of Corinthians' affairs. As of now, the new Galacticos have a long way to go in their bid to establish their place in the football galaxy.