Sport Club Corinthians Paulista Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista, commonly known as Corinthians, are a Brazilian football team from São Paulo in Brazil, founded on September 1, 1910. They play in white shirts, black shorts and white socks.
| Table of contents |
|
2 The Club in 2004 3 FIFA World Champions 4 Honours 5 Famous Players 6 External Links |
Sport Club Corinthians Paulista was founded September 1st, 1910, by a group of friends in the neighbourhood of Bom Retiro, under the lights of a oil lamp, in what is now downtown São Paulo. Their idea was to found a football team in which anyone could display his abilities in the sport, since back then, in the beginning of the 20th century, football in Brazil was played mainly by British descendants and people who worked for British companies, like the São Paulo Railway. In other words, Corinthians, like club Vasco da Gama in Rio de Janeiro were one of the first "popular" football clubs in Brazil.
Among the founders, the first ideas for the name of the club were full of Brazilian national spirit: Carlos Gomes Football Club and Futebol Clube Santos Dumont. However, these prominent Brazilian names were put aside after the English amateur team Corinthians won all six games in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro during an exhibitional tour of Brazil. The name Sport Club Corinthians Paulista was agreed upon, as an homage to the great British club of the beginning of the past century.
In the first few years after its foundation, Corinthians Paulista played first in local tournaments, and then in the São Paulo State Championships. Its first winning season was in 1914, as they became State Champions of that year. Other triumphs followed. As a popular team, the number of Corinthians' supporters grew to the extent that now, in Brazil, it is bigger than Flamengo wich occupies the 2º position.Corinthians now has more than 20 million supporters; according to recent researches done by IBGE(Brazilian institute of geographics and statistics).
Corinthians are known in Brazil as the "Centennial Champion", because of the coincidence featured in the years of some of its conquests:
1922 - State Champions; Brazil's independence from Portugal was in 1822
1954 - State Champions; Foundation of the city of São Paulo was in 1554
Corinthians have gone through many crisis during its almost one hundred years of history. In the 60s, lack of winning campaigns and an eleven-year streak without being able to win a single game against Pelé's Santos earned the team the nickname of "Laughable".
However, the club's situation in 2004 may be the most difficult in its history. Bad administration, lack of money and ridiculous campaigns both in the 2003 Brazilian Championship and in the 2004 São Paulo State Championship have been worrying its millions of supporters. As of May 2004, Corinthians occupies one of the lowest positions in the National Championship's table, and runs a serious risk of being relegated to next year's Serie B.
In Brazil there's much discussion if Corinthians should be called "World Champions" after winning the FIFA Club World Championship in 2000.
Brazilian football fans, and South American football fans in general (as opposed to Europe, where winning the UEFA Champions League is considered the highest possible achievement for a football club) have a strong feeling towards the annual Intercontinental Cup, in which the UEFA champion plays one single game against the Libertadores Cup winners in Japan. In South America, the winner of this game is considered that year's "World Champion."
In the year 2000, FIFA created the Club World Championship, a competition that should have been disputed every two years, but has had a single edition so far because of lack of interest from UEFA clubs. Corinthians entered the competition as the host country's (Brazil) previous champions.
In the group stage, the results were as follows:
Corinthians - Raja Casablanca (MAR): 2:0
Corinthians - Real Madrid (SPA): 2:2
Corinthians - Al Nassr (KSA): 2:0 (in this game, Corinthians scored an illegitm goal, that brought the brazilian team in the final game, due to the advantage in goals scored compared to Real Madrid).
The seven points won in the group stage enabled Corinthians to play the grand final of the tournament against Brazil's Vasco da Gama, in the Maracanã Stadium. The final match ended in a 0:0 draw, and in the penalty shootout Corinthians won 4:3 after Vasco player Edmundo missed his penalty.
Corinthians' supporters will always say their team are World Champions because of this conquest. São Paulo, Santos, Flamengo and Grêmio supporters say that their teams are the real World Champions (respectively in the years '92 and '93, '62 and '63, '81 and '83 - years that these clubs have won the Libertadores Cup and the Intercontinental Game) and, furthermore, tend to consider FIFA's Club World Championship as a discontinued event. However, FIFA has announced a new Club World Championship, scheduled to take place in 2005.
FIFA recognises Corinthians as World Champions. But they've never won the Libertadores da America's Cup.
RSSSF's page about the FIFA Club World Championship This is an Article on Sport Club Corinthians Paulista. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Sport Club Corinthians Paulista History
Foundation
The origin of the name
Becoming great
The Club in 2004
FIFA World Champions
Honours
Famous Players
External Links