1. 277 Drinking dangerously? Young football fans, alcohol and masculinity in Brazil http://dx.doi.org/10.11606/1807-5509201800020277 Heloisa Helena Baldy dos REIS* *Universidade ** Estadual de Campinas, Mariana Zuaneti MARTINS Campinas, SP, Brazil. / Ramón SPAAIJ*** **** **Instituto Federal do ***** Sul de Minas, Pouso Felipe Tavares Paes LOPES Alegre, MG, Brazil. ***Victoria University, Footscray, VIC, Australia. ****University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands. *****Universidade de Sorocaba, Sorocaba, SP, Brasil. Abstract This article examines young members of football fan formations known as torcidas organizadas and their relationship with alcohol. This relationship is investigated drawing on a survey undertaken with 804 young football fans in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. The survey results indicate that the percentage of young fans who engage in heavy drinking is considerably higher than that for young Brazilians of the same age in general. Through comparison with young football fans from other countries, it is argued that this high rate is related to the cultural practices of young torcedores, in which drinking ‘dangerously’ is a constitutive element in their construction of masculinity in the football context. KEYWORDS: Football; Alcohol; Torcidas organizadas; Masculinity; Fandom. Introduction The relationship between alcohol and sports has do not have a reputation for violent conduct4,5. been studied for some decades1,2. The mainstream These fans, although often associated with excessive studies on this matter argued that contradictory alcohol consumption, are typically identified with a sports are related to health and the alcohol consume, nonviolent carnival atmosphere where drunkenness in particular, sport spectator drinking. Therefore, any is accompanied by positive sociability6. Conversely, health promotion policy would to take in account not all of those who do get involved in violence this association1. However, when the subject is the drink. In some cases fans deliberately seek to keep a relationship between sports spectators’ violence and clear head in order to maintain their ability to fight alcohol, the matter is a more complex. and avoid being caught unawares by rival fans or Sociological and anthropological research debunks the police. Instead, Dunning argues the relationship the popular belief that alcohol is implicated in many between football violence and alcohol consumption instances of football-related violence. For example, is indirect. Not violence, but the masculinity norms Dunning3 argues that alcohol consumption is not of the fan groups involved that tend to stress the a root cause of football-related violence for the ability to drink (copious amounts of) alcohol as simple reason that not every fan who drinks in a something of which to be proud and as a symbol football context acts aggressively or violently, not of masculinity. This finding is consistent with even those who drink heavily. Some football crowds broader research which suggests that alcohol with a reputation for heavy drinking, such as fans consumption is associated with the performance of the Scottish and Danish national football teams, of masculine identity7,8. Rev Bras Educ Fís Esporte, (São Paulo) 2018 Abr-Jun;32(2):277-88• 277 Reis HHB, et al. Ethnographic studies that analyze football fandom founders and leaders of Mancha Verde, from the team as a contemporary form of carnival lend further weight Palmeiras. In the following decade, this association to this argument5,9-11. Football fandom can be seen to was strengthened and violence in football gained an facilitate a period of ritualized transgression from the increased public dimension and became an item on the norms of everyday life and a collapse or inversion of the agenda of policy decisions. One episode in particular normal roles that people are forced to play in society. seems to have caught the attention of the media and Pearson’s11 ethnography of English football fans shows the authorities: the 1995 ‘Battle of Pacaembu’, when how fans’ experience of the carnivalesque is based upon fans of Palmeiras and São Paulo invaded the pitch and congregating in groups, alcohol consumption, humour engaged in violent clashes, resulting in the death of a and expressions of identity. The fan groups Pearson fan and more than one hundred injuries. studied were frequently brought into conflict with the It was also in the first half of the 1990s that the football authorities and police, and alcohol was often torcidas organizadas grew significantly. For example, a key object of contention. Several alcohol restrictions from 1991 to 1995, the main torcidas organizadas have been imposed on football fans, such as bans on of São Paulo quadrupled their membership: Mancha drinking on transport to matches, prohibitions on Verde grew from 4,000 to 18,000 members, the sale of alcohol in stadia, and the closing of bars Independente from 7,000 to 28,000 and Gaviões around the stadium on match days. In England, for da Fiel from 12,000 to 46,00017. In the 2000s, the example, it was “allowed the regulated sale of beer in membership of these fan groups kept rising, and, in the stadium, limiting the amount of pints (the classic some cases, nearly doubled. However, despite this British measure) per spectator, and a ban on entering growth, Murad15 reminds us that the members of with drinks in the stands. One could drink before torcidas organizadas continue to be only a small the matches and during the breaks of the matches” fraction of all fans. (p. 29)12. It was due to the Dry Law. This “could be The symbolic aspect is one of the most important effective in small towns, but in London – where a few in the definition of torcidas organizadas. It is based hundred meters walk from the stadium, the fans can upon the recognition and the difference between find a pub that works legally –, such measure made no these supporters, reinforcing and expressing ‘[...] sense” (p. 29)12. Yet, in other European countries such the commitment and belonging to the group, since as Germany, the alcohol sale still allowed throughout the symbols demarcate differences and identities, the game. Alcohol restrictions typically have little solidifying opposition and solidarity’ (p. 91)18. or no impact on levels of alcohol consumption or Torcidas organizadas can be easily recognized in drunkenness; rather, they can actually create situations stadiums with their own clothes, choreography and where conflict and confrontation are more likely11,13. ‘war chants’. Their members also often seek to defend Anyhow, research on the relationship between alcohol their territoriality, and, as indicated by Monteiro19, consuming and violence still something scarce in Brazil, share and spread an aggressive, hyperheterosexual as we will discuss later. masculine identity which, among other things, leads In Brazil, young fans from torcidas organizadas are to discrimination against homosexuals and others systematically accused by sports administrators, public deemed ‘non-masculine20. As will be seen below, officials and the media of being responsible for acts of alcohol consumption plays a significant part in the violence and vandalism that occur inside and outside fans’ masculine and territorial performances. In the Brazilian sports stadiums and hence we studied them. next section we will discuss the methodological These same public actors often refer to young football approaches taken to investigate this issue. fans as ‘lazybones’, ‘tramps’ and ‘bandits’14. Rather Given this, it is necessary to move beyond popular than reliable representations of reality, these popular beliefs and stereotypes to investigate who those stereotypes are, at least for those on the receiving end, young members of torcidas organizadas really are abusive and discriminatory. We know that only a small and how they give meaning to their football fandom. minority of young torcedores (fans) engage in violent Such investigation is pivotal to the development behaviour in the football context15. of appropriate public policies. As such, our study The association of the torcidas organizadas with the builds on, and is situated within, the rich body of violence related to the Brazilian football appeared in international research on football fans which seeks to the 1980s. According to Thompson, Palmer and make visible, describe and come to an understanding Raven16, this was mainly with the prominence given of how football fans give meaning to and experience by the press to the murder, in 1988, of one of the their social world11,21-24. 278 • Rev Bras Educ Fís Esporte, (São Paulo) 2018 Abr-Jun;32(2):277-88 Football fans, alcohol and masculinity in Brazil The specific focus in this paper on the issue of Given the complexity of the relationship alcohol is due, primarily, to the fact that research between the consumption of alcohol, torcidas into the sport-alcohol nexus in Brazil is still very organizadas and violence, this paper investigates scarce25,26. International research, both academic the profile of torcedores organizados, from their and journalistic, points to a high consumption of relationship with alcohol. This paper is part of alcohol by young football fans, indicating a close a long-standing research programme that was relationship between their lifestyles and alcohol designed to inform Brazilian public policy around consumption21,27-29. Alcohol consumption forms the prevention of violence at sporting events, an important part of the match-going experience for first initiated in March 2003. This article seeks many football fans; yet, this is not necessarily the case. to ascertain if, in the State of São Paulo, the Recent research shows that the common perception relationship between match-going culture and that sports fans routinely engage in excessive drinking alcohol consumption also exists and, if so, to is seriously flawed because it fails to recognize the ascertain its possible reasons and implications. diverging ways in which fans engage with, or abstain Before addressing these issues, it is important, from, alcohol16. Moreover, there is disagreement however, to contextualize the phenomenon among scholars as to the nature and implications of of torcidas organizadas.