Thirteenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

This paper presents the process of non-professional players and clubs claiming urban spaces for the practice of “futebol de várzea” (amateur football) in several Brazilian cities, including the state capital of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte. Based on this case study we aim to show new aspects of the Brazilian sports universe, orally narrated by their anonymous actors and their respective associative entities, which have less common approaches to community dimensions when compared to the international image of the “the country of football”. This research uses sources and methods from Oral History, whose development in Brazil is contextualized in this paper. With the same purpose, the study presents an overview of the introduction of football studies in the country from the 1970s – when the theme was not recognized by academia – to contemporaneity, a period when research on the topic grows with significant qualitative and quantitative range.